ADMINISTRATION AND CONGRESS SPLIT ON DRUG WAR AS ZEDILLO ARRIVES

By George Gedda
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) As Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo begins his first
visit to Washington in two years, there are deep divisions between the
administration and key members of Congress over the way Mexico is doing
battle with drug traffickers.

Zedillo and four cabinet secretaries were due to arrive in late morning
today for two days of talks highlighted by a meeting Friday with President
Clinton.

Late last month, Clinton's top drug adviser, retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey,
credited Mexico with ``phenomenal'' advances in the drug war and rebuked
influential lawmakers for criticizing Mexico's performance.

His comments were aimed at Sens. Paul Coverdell, RGa., and Dianne
Feinstein, DCalif., who contend that Mexico's performance is still subpar.

They maintain that Mexican law enforcement still is ``riddled'' with
corruption, that no major drug cartel leaders have been arrested and U.S.
agents working in Mexico still are barred from carrying firearms.

Their comments came before Mexico's arrest over the weekend of Everardo
Arturo Paez Martinez, a suspected highranking member of a powerful drug
cartel. The U.S. government has taken the first steps toward an expected
extradition request.

Paez, 30, was charged in an indictment unsealed in San Diego on Monday with
conspiring to distribute about 2,200 pounds of cocaine in the United States.

Previewing Zedillo's visit for reporters on Wednesday, Mexico's new
ambassador, Jesus ReyesHeroles, downplayed the significance of the drug
issue, never mentioning it during a lengthy opening statement on bilateral
relations.

When asked about the issue by a reporter, ReyesHeroles said drugs were but
one component of a much larger relationship.

Both sides seem eager to highlight a newly negotiated multinational
convention to curb cross border gun smuggling throughout the hemisphere.
Zedillo and Clinton will sign the measure on Friday at a ceremony held at
the Organization of American States.

A key feature of the convention is a provision that bars the transfer of
weapons from one country to another unless they are marked or licensed.

ReyesHeroles, said arms smuggling is the ``mirror image'' of drug
trafficking.

``The drugs go in one direction, the arms go in the other,'' he said,
suggesting that the arsenals in the possession of narcotraffickers are the
product of illicit crossborder trade.

That assumption was challenged by a U.S. official, who said that weapons
sent from the United States to Mexico can sometimes be the product of
legitimate transactions involving the military or the national police, then
are diverted as part of an illicit scam.