DRUG REPORT TO EXONERATE MEXICO;
BILATERAL STUDY TO GIVE CREDIT FOR SOME REAL DRUGWAR PROGRESS
by Tom Carter; THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, News World Communications, Inc.

U.S. and Mexican officials are preparing to release a
report on Mexico's illegaldrug problem that will be
"completely different" from the State Department's study in
March, which was highly critical of the nation's antidrug
efforts, Mexico's ambassador to the United States said
yesterday.

"It will begin with the recognition of the importance
of [U.S.] consumption, which the State Department's report
does not address," said Jesus SilvaHerzog, in a breakfast
meeting with reporters at the Mexican Embassy.

Mr. SilvaHerzog said the report will credit Mexico
with advances made against moneylaundering.

The report, prepared by the office of U.S. drug czar
Gen. Barry McCaffrey in conjunction with Mexico's attorney
general and Foreign Ministry, will be released during
President Clinton's first trip to Latin America as
president, which begins May 5.

Gen. McCaffrey's Office of National Drug Control
Policy did not respond to questions about the report.

Mr. SilvaHerzog complained that Mexico is held to
higher standards than the United States on drugs, which
move north from Mexico, and on guns, which move south from
the United States.

"When it is drugs, the problem is supply. On guns
[coming from the United States], the problem is demand. We
can't get a break," said Mr. SilvaHerzog, in a
wideranging discussion that touched upon trade,
immigration, drugs, Mr. Clinton's visit and future
relations between the two countries. Also yesterday, a
Mexican court overturned the murder conviction of the drug
lord who was accused of killing U.S. federal agent Enrique
"Kiki" Camarena in 1985. The conviction was overturned by a
Mexico City tribunal yesterday on a technicality, but
Rafael Caro Quintero will remain in jail on other drug
convictions, wire services reported.

The Mexican ambassador criticized new U.S. immigration
restrictions, arguing that the laws will "rupture or break
up family unions."

He said immigration must be addressed as a "twoway
problem."

He asked, for example, that if there were no Mexican
migrants in the United States, "who would pick the grapes
in Napa Valley? What would happen to the price of
broccoli? Who would pick the apples and pears in
Washington state? You would have to import labor from
Haiti, Central America, the Philippines or China."

Mexico will hold elections in July, and Mr.
SilvaHerzog said they should diminish the notion that
Mexico is a oneparty pseudodemocracy in the grip of the
Institutional Revolutionary Party, the PRI. He said
election reforms are making Mexican democracy more open,
noting that 45 percent of all Mexicans now live in states
or towns governed by the opposition. Regarding Mr.
Clinton's May 511 trip to Latin America and the Caribbean,
Mr. SilvaHerzog noted that Mr. Clinton will arrive on
Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican national holiday that commemorates
a Mexican military victory over France.

He said that, despite some resentment in Latin America
that the region has been overlooked by the Clinton
administration, Mr. Clinton will be warmly received in
Mexico.

Listing the North American Free Trade Agreement, the
U.S. financial assistance package of February 1995 and the
Feb. 28 decision to recertify Mexico as an ally in the
international war on drugs, Mr. SilvaHerzog said Mr.
Clinton is recognized as a friend in Mexico.

"He has shown his friendship to Mexico on a number of
occasions. It was not just rhetoric, and it came with high
political risk. . . . We are going to show him we know how
to recognize a friend," he said.