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Capitol Hill watchers have long observed the Democrats'
penchant to arrange their firing squads in a circle. Now
congressional Republicans appear to be taking a page from
their partisan adversaries' execution manual. Indeed, the
two parties have formed a ringlike configuration as they
move to "" decertify'' Mexico as an ally in the War on
Drugs _ an action that would severely wound U.S. vital
interests. Last Thursday, the House International Relations
Committee voted 275 for decertification. Congressional
approval of this legislation would classify Mexico as a
narcotics pariah, along with Myanmar (formerly Burma),
Colombia, and Iran. Of course, President Clinton could veto
the bill or sign it and waive economic sanctions.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are out for
blood. ""Business as usual in the drug war is over.
Sweeping the drug problem under the rug won't work,''
harrumphed House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt.

For his part, Florida Republican E. Clay Shaw Jr.,
called his decertification initiative ""extremely necessary
because the greatest threat to the United States today is
not a hostile nation with weapons of mass destruction but
the threat that comes when a friendly nation stands idly by
while drugs flow into our nation and into the hands of our
children.''

Clearly, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo has handed
crates of ammunition to his Washington antagonists. Most of
the heroin and cocaine entering the U. S. flows through
Mexico. Mexican authorities recently arrested Gen. Jesus
Gutierrez Rebollo, head of the national antidrug agency,
on charges of conniving with the head of a major drug
syndicate. And narcobarons fork over some $500 million a
year to suborn politicians, military officers, and law
enforcement personnel, most flagrantly the 4,400member
Federal Judicial Police.

Before U.S. legislators get swept away with indignant
fingerpointing, however, they should ponder one
embarrassing truth: Mexicans _ politicians, prosecutors,
and police alike _ do facilitate the influx of narcotics
into the United States. Yet these wrongdoers would be out
of business quicker than Sen. Feinstein can say ""I'm
outraged'' were it not for millions of drug users north of
the Rio Grande.

No one can justify the venality pervading Mexico. Still,
it's a lot easier for congressmen to beat up on Mr.
Zedillo, et al, than to take prudent legal, educational,
social, and economic steps to address America's appetite
for illegal substances.

Undoubtedly, decertification would inflame public
opinion in sovereignty conscious Mexico, sparking several
regrettable outcomes:

* Markedly less cooperation by Mr. Zedillo and his able,
honest attorney general, Jorge Madrazo, on matters such as
extradition, information exchanges, combatting
moneylaundering, and joint lawenforcement ventures. *
Mexico's insistence on reducing the number _ and
circumscribing the role _ of the Drug Enforcement
Administration and FBI agents on its territory.

* A dampening of both Naftarelated commercial
activities and private investment just when the Mexican
economy is pulling out of the worst recession in recent
memory.

* Pressure on the presidency and foreign ministry to
turn thumbs down on President Clinton's planned visit to
Mexico next month.

* The strengthening of the nationalistleftist
Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD, in upcoming
gubernatorial, legislative and mayoral elections.

With respect to the last point, drug decertification
would brighten the prospects of Cuauhtemoc Cardenas in his
bid to become the first elected mayor of Mexico City on
July 6. After all, his PRD boasts an inflammatory record of
political authoritarianism, economic statism, and
antiAmericanism.

Should Mr. Cardenas upset the two moderates in the race
_ the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party's Alfredo
del Mazo Gonzalez and the surging, businessfocused
National Action Party's Carlos Castillo Peraza _ he will
have a bully pulpit from which to seek the presidency in
2000. An elected executive of Mexico's capital with its 18
million people would have the clout of the mayors of New
York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami combined.

The Zedillo regime has many shortcomings but _ to its
credit _ it has kept the lines of communication open with
Washington, making desultory efforts to work with the
United States on narcotics, illegal immigration, trade,
finance, electoral reform and other prickly issues.

Congress' slapping Mexico across the face with
decertification would chill collaboration, causing much
more harm than good, especially by lofting the star of
radicals whose animus toward Yankees is only surpassed by
their contempt for economic and political modernization.