ZEDILLO REJECTS CRITICISM

Mexican leader indicates U.S. drug habit is an American problem

MEXICO CITY In a rare public complaint, Mexican President Ernesto
Zedillo Ponce de León suggested recently that the United States should pay
reparations to his country for the damage wrought by narcotraffickers
scurrying to meet Americans' insatiable demand for illicit drugs.

The quip set a new tone for Zedillo's planned twohour meeting with
President Clinton on Friday in Washington, D.C. Zedillo is expected to
deliver a tough Mexican response to U.S. criticism over drug trafficking,
albeit in words more diplomatic. He is not, however, expected to present
the U.S. government with a bill during his twoday whirl though the U.S.
capital, which begins today.

The popular Mexican president, lauded for his leadership of a nonpartisan
drive to overhaul his country's economy and an entrenched political system,
starts his state visit today with a breakfast speech to business leaders.

But then he'll get down to business: He meets later in the day with U.S.
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, with whom he'll discuss Mexico's
stubbornly high foreign debt and repayment prospects amid an improving
Mexican economy. After his Friday morning meeting with Clinton, Zedillo
will have lunch with Vice President Al Gore.

The buzz created by Zedillo's offhand remark about American drug
consumption has died down, and his meeting with Clinton is expected to
yield only expressions of good will. The two leaders will continue what
observers say is a close friendship marked by a likemindedness on trade
issues and Mexico's efforts to combat drug trafficking.

Zedillo administration sources insist the trip, suggested by Clinton when
he visited Mexico City in May, is designed to further negotiations between
the neighbors over new trade, arms trafficking and immigration treaties.

But drugs continue to be the biggest barrier to complete harmony between
the two governments and are expected to dominate Zedillo's visit.

``By speaking out about the impact of the great U.S. consumption of drugs,
Zedillo is putting Mexico on more of an offensive footing in its
oftenstrained relationship with Washington. . . . He said out loud what
many in Latin America are thinking,'' said José Antonio Crespo, chief of
political studies at the Center for Economic Studies in Mexico City. ``Many
Mexicans are hoping he repeats that thought to Clinton and others this
week.''

Crespo said the strong ties between Zedillo and Clinton had helped Mexico
by keeping the door open to U.S. assistance in critical times, such as the
$20 billion bailout when the Mexican peso crashed in late 1994.

But this meeting will be different, analysts said, because Zedillo has
gained so much international stature since Mexico's July 6 elections.

Zedillo pushed his own party to make that vote different from any in the
past 70 years. The Mexican Congress, then dominated by the longruling
Institutional Revolutionary Party, complied and passed tough new rules that
guaranteed the cleanest elections in Mexican history. The result: worldwide
praise for Zedillo, even though his ruling party lost control of the
Congress and of Mexico City, where Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, the leftofcenter
standardbearer, became the capital city's first elected mayor. With this
new clout, Crespo said, Zedillo can get away with tough talk about the
United States' heavyhanded antidrug certification process.

Members of the U.S. Congress accuse Mexico of failing to prevent the
movement of mass quantities of cocaine and marijuana north across the
border. Leaders such as California Sen. Dianne Feinstein say that despite
Clinton's blessings of Mexico's antidrug campaigns, the country is still
riddled with drugrelated corruption and thus should not win
recertification next spring as a good ally in the war on
drugs.

Mexico counters that it is U.S. consumption that fuels the drug trade.
Voices within the Zedillo administration have joined others in Latin
America to suggest that an independent, international commission be formed
to certify drugwar efforts of various countries including the United
States.

That idea was batted around by Latin American heads of state last week at a
summit meeting in Venezuela. Zedillo aides said the Mexican president would
probably brief Clinton on that meeting.

These private words could prove more important for Zedillo's visit than the
maritimetrade, environmentalprotection, and criminalextradition pacts
that might emerge from his meetings with Clinton administration officials.