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San Diego UnionTribune
Wednesday, March 12, 1997

EDITORIAL

HELEN K. COPLEY, Chairman and Publisher
KARIN E. WINNER, Editor
ROBERT A. KITTLE, Editor of the Editorial Page

A slap in the face
Rejecting Mexico as drug ally would be foolish

Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment;
and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your
opinion.

Edmund Burke The stampede in Congress to override President Clinton's
certification of Mexico as an ally in fighting international drug
trafficking is, in domestic political terms, a nobrainer.

That fact was bluntly evident in the 27to5 vote last week by the House
International Relations Committee to decertify Mexico. The rebuke
clearly has broad backing among both Democrats and Republicans eager to
show they are tough on drugs and especially tough on blaming Mexico
for Americans' own unslakable thirst for drugs.

But is it sensible to deliver a slap in the face to Mexico at the very
moment we are trying to expand U.S.Mexican cooperation in interdicting
narcotics?

Or would a congressional resolution condemning Mexico, effectively
making it a scapegoat in our own faltering war on drugs, lead inevitably
to less crossborder cooperation and an even stronger hand for the drug
lords who exert a disturbing influence at all levels of Mexican society?

Voting to decertify Mexico, thereby lumping it with such corrupt regimes
as Colombia and Burma, would no doubt make many Americans and their
politicians feel better. But the inconvenient truth is that it also
would be a huge victory for the drug lords whose obscene profits are
supplied by users of marijuana, cocaine and heroin on this side of the
border.

The move led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, DCalif., to strip Mexico of
certification would almost certainly generate a political backlash of
lasting proportions among Mexicans.

Throughout most of the history of our two nations, Mexicans have
resented the dominant role the United States has played in hemispheric
affairs. More specifically, they have taken offense, rightly or wrongly,
at what they have viewed as Washington's bigbrother approach to their
own internal policies.

That's why a heavyhanded repudiation of Mexico by Congress would make
it almost impossible, politically, for President Ernesto Zedillo to
continue working with the United States on druginterdiction efforts.
Indeed, any steps by Zedillo to follow Washington's lead on narcotics
trafficking after decertification would be seen by Mexicans as
surrendering to Yankee intimidation.

Besides these hard political realities, members of Congress can hardly
claim the moral high road in the drug war.

After all, the singular reason drugs cross our border with Mexico is
Americans' own demand for illicit narcotics. The flow is strictly a
oneway proposition, propelled by U.S. dollars. And voters in California
and Arizona did not exactly impress Mexico with their commitment against
drug abuse when they recently legalized marijuana for socalled
"medicinal" purposes.

Who are we, the rest of the world asks reasonably, to point fingers?

Chestthumping lawmakers on Capitol Hill notwithstanding, the best way
to counter drug trafficking is through increased cooperation, not
confrontation, with Mexico. To paraphrase Burke, decertifying Mexico as
an ally in the drug war would be the ultimate in sacrificing sound
judgment to popular opinion.