U.S. SEEKS HEMISPHERIC ALLIANCE IN DRUG WAR

By Anthony Boadle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) The White House, stung by criticism of its counter
narcotics efforts, is devising a new strategy to get Latin American
countries to cooperate in the drug war, administration officials say.

The idea is to build an effective alliance and eventually overcome the
controversial current system of certifying or evaluating countries on their
antidrug performance, they said Wednesday.

This process was shown to be ineffectual this year when the Clinton
administration certified Mexico just weeks after its antidrug police chief
had been arrested for being in the pay of cocaine traffickers.

The decertification of Colombia on grounds that President Ernesto Samper
had received campaign funds from the Cali cartel was seen as hurting close
U.S. cooperation with that country's military and police forces in fighting
drug production.

White House drug policy chief Gen. Barry McCaffrey believes that unilateral
fingerpointing has created more illfeeling in the hemisphere than
progress in stopping cocaine and heroin flowing north onto U.S. streets.

McCaffrey said the United States cannot win the drug war alone by playing
policeman and accuser, but needs to build a partnership.

"It is clear that as we build effective international cooperation on this
issue, certification will lose its current impression in the minds of many
of unilateral arrogance and will become burried under a higher order
cooperative effort," he told a news conference.

McCaffrey spoke after a twoday brainstorming conference between
government officials, diplomats and academics on how to build a drug
control strategy for the hemisphere.

The consensus was that, with the Cold War over and Latin America living an
unprecedented era of democracy, the time was ripe to bring the region on
board as allies in dealing with perhaps the most critical issue on the
hemispheric agenda.

President Clinton's pointman on Latin America, Thomas "Mack" McLarty said
the new strategy will be proposed to the other leaders of the hemisphere at
a summit of the Americas in Santiago, Chile, next April.

The new strategy includes a multinational counter narcotics center to be
housed at Howard Air Force base in Panama.

The base reverts to Panama at the end of the century and negotiations are
underway to turn it into a facility to coordinate antidrug operations,
exchange intelligence and train enforcement agents. U.S. flights to track
drug shipments from South American would continue to operate from the ase.

According to a U.S. General Accounting Office report released last week, an
estimated 608 tons of cocaine where shipped to the United States in 1996
through the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico.

The GAO report said 59 percent of the cocaine shipped to the United States
in the first half of 1997 passed through Central America and Mexico.

The Congress is divided on the effectiveness of certification, and some
prominent members insist it should be kept in place, even if it gives the
wrong impression to Latin American countries.

"It tends to create a perception that the neighbor from the north is
pushing and bullying, though I don't think that is the intent," said
Senator Paul Coverdell, a Georgia Republican.

Coverdell, an outspoken critic of Mexico's failure to arrest drug
traffickers, said certification must be continued to maintain an
accountability for the funds the United States gives to counterdrug
programs in drug producing countries.

But he said a new strategy was needed to pool the region's assets and show
Latin America that "we are working together and not at odds with one
another, finger pointing."

"It is obvious that what we are doing is not winning," he told Reuters.
"The status quo is not acceptable."

The new multilateral approach involves recognition that the United States
is part of the drug problem as well, given the enormous demand created by
the $57 billion Americans spend each year on illegal drugs, McCaffrey said.

"Where we are going to beat the drug issue is here in Topeka and Miami and
Boise, Idaho, and not in Bolivia or Burma," the U.S. drug chief said.

Copyright © 1997 Reuters Limited.