Pubdate: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 Source: Reuters Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited. Author: Anthony Boadle U.S. EXPECTED TO OK MEXICO, COLOMBIA DRUG EFFORTS WASHINGTON, - The Clinton administration is expected to give its blessing on Friday to anti-drug efforts by Mexico and Colombia as part of an annual policy that critics claim has become a political tool and an irritation to other nations. Critics say the United States has little to show for its policy, in place since 1986, of "certifying" to Congress by each March 1 that major drug-producing and drug-transit countries are doing all they can to fight trafficking. Countries that are not certified are punished with certain economic and trade sanctions. Seizures of cocaine and heroin declined last year in Mexico, the major route for drugs flowing from South America into the United States. U.S. narcotics officials complain that pervasive corruption in Mexico, even inside police units specially created to fight drug traffickers, was a major setback in 1998. Yet President Bill Clinton indicated during a recent visit to the second-largest U.S. trading partner that he will renew Mexico's status as an ally in the drug war, as Washington has done every year since 1986. Despite an explosive rise in coca leaf and opium poppy plantations in Colombia, the White House is expected to fully certify the world's largest cocaine producer as an ally in the war against drugs so as not to embarrass its new president Andres Pastrana. "Drug certification is a bust," said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, an independent policy centre in Washington. "After all these years and billions of dollars that have been spent fighting drugs, there has not been a dent in staying drug trafficking," Birns said. Clinton is expected to deny certification this year to Paraguay, a notorious smuggling centre for drugs and chemicals used to make them. Paraguay's government has fallen out of favour with Washington over its release of a former coup leader. "This does expose the absurdity of the policy, which has fundamentally become a political tool and used selectively," said Michael Shifter of Inter- American Dialogue, an independent policy group. "When we did not like the government of Colombia, we did not certify Colombia. Now that we have a relationship with the new president, we certify Colombia regardless of its performance in cooperating in fighting drugs," Shifter said. Colombia was blacklisted in 1996 and 1997 because then-president Ernesto Samper fell out of favour with Washington over charges that he accepted $6 million in campaign funds from drug lords. Birns said Colombia now has a better anti-drug record and a significantly better anti-drug performance than Mexico, whose government was certified in 1997 despite the arrest of its top anti-drug law enforcement officer, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, for being on the payroll of a drug cartel. The only other country to be blacklisted for drugs in Latin America was Panama in 1988 and 1989. The United States blacklisted Panama just before invading to remove a former ally, dictator Manuel Noriega, on the grounds that he was involved in drug trafficking. Shifter said drug certification does little to advance the war on drugs and, in fact, undermines cooperation with other governments by subjecting them to an annoying test once a year. "We go through this madness every year. It increases tensions. It is not a constructive way to improve ties," Shifter said. Most members of Congress say certification is needed to account for the taxpayers' dollars that are given to other countries to fight the drug trade and the process allows them to take a hard look at the issue once a year. But even the harshest critics of Mexico's anti-drug performance say the tool may be flawed. "It has become a political process," California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who faults Mexico for not extraditing a single drug trafficker wanted in the United States, told a Senate hearing on Wednesday. "A criminal matter has become politicized." The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, whose agents put their lives on the line working in Mexico, consistently objects to corruption in the Mexican government. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea