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Jeffrey Davidow, Assistant Secretary Bureau of Inter-American Affairs Statement before the Caucus on International Narcotics Control and Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Washington, DC, October 29, 1997

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to discuss our counternarcotics cooperation with Mexico. This is a priority aspect of one of the most important relationships we maintain in the world. Taking into account the depth, complexity, and importance of the overall relationship with Mexico, counternarcotics is not the only issue in that relationship. At the same time, we recognize that the relationship will be much more difficult if we cannot make progress on fighting drug trafficking.

Mr. Chairman, your convening this hearing today is timely; just last week we held a meeting of the High Level Contact Group on Drug Control (HLCG), marking another step forward in our bilateral cooperation. And on November 14, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo will make an official working visit to Washington. Among a number of other issues, he and President Clinton will be discussing the course of our counternarcotics cooperation since the two Presidents signed the Declaration of the U.S.-Mexican Alliance Against Drugs last May in Mexico City, as well as our plans for developing further our cooperation in the months to come.

Both the United States and Mexico remain firmly committed to efforts to counter the growing threat of large-scale drug trafficking and other serious organized crimes. The President's "Report to Congress" on U.S.-Mexican counter-drug cooperation, released in mid-September, chronicles the course of Mexico's efforts to reform its counternarcotics legal and institutional structures and increase cooperation with the U.S. against narcotics trafficking. The report does not gloss over the difficulties in our counternarcotics cooperation, including corruption and what some have called "the culture of impunity" in Mexico, institutional and resource weaknesses, lack of progress on protection for U.S. law enforcement agents in Mexico, and continued problems on extraditions.

These problems notwithstanding, what is significant is that the Government of Mexico continues to cooperate with the United States on a broad range of counternarcotics activities. Mexico's senior leadership recognizes that such cooperation must be real, regular, and reliable. How well Mexican political will can be translated into effective action against narcotics trafficking will be a major determinant of Mexico's success in developing capable counternarcotics institutions and confronting widespread corruption. Institutional reform is now underway in Mexican law enforcement agencies and the Mexican criminal justice system. As institutional and legal reform continue to take root, Mexico will be an increasingly effective partner in the fight against drugs.

The ONDCP Report

As the President's report notes, Mexico scored several counter-drug successes this year and implemented a number of changes the U.S. viewed as critical to effective bilateral cooperation. In major developments:

• In the wake of the arrest of General Gutierrez Rebollo, a new vetting process was established for special law enforcement units that incorporates extensive background checks and regular polygraph testing.
• Mexico established a new special law enforcement branch--the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Health (FEADS) to replace the discredited National Counternarcotics Institute (INCD).
• New Mexican vetted units were established under Mexico's Attorney General and have become operational, to implement Mexico's Organized Crime Law and to provide an analytical capability against the major trafficking organizations. These units have begun to develop information and cases.
• Based on Mexican reports, Mexico exceeded, in the first nine months of 1997, its 1996 record for eradication of illicit drug crops and drug seizures.
• Mexican seizures of narco-traffickers' cash and assets reached record levels.
• The Government of Mexico agreed to accredit 12 new FBI and DEA agents in country and provide consular privileges and immunities to 22 additional U.S. law enforcement officers for the Bilateral Border Task Forces.
• Mexico agreed to streamline refueling, overflight, and overnight procedures for U.S. drug detection and monitoring assets.
• Mexico enhanced operational coordination with U.S. interdiction forces, especially in the maritime arena.
• In coordination with the U.S., Mexico conducted an aggressive pursuit of top trafficker Amado Carrillo Fuentes, which ultimately drove him to plan to flee the country after altering his appearance; he died after undergoing cosmetic surgery.
• The Mexican Government approved the extradition of Mexican citizens and has worked closely with U.S. law enforcement authorities on extradition priorities.
• This year, the Government of Mexico has agreed to the extradition of four Mexican nationals wanted on drug charges. Their surrender has been postponed pending the completion of their appeals or sentences for crimes committed in Mexico.
• Mexico and the United States have reached agreement on the text of a protocol to our bilateral extradition treaty which will permit sequential trials in the two countries in cases where there are charges against an individual in each country. It would clear the way for consecutive prosecutions where that currently cannot occur.
• Mexico arrested a number of major drug traffickers, including Juan Garcia Abrego, Jose Pereira Salas, Manuel Rodriguez Lopez, Oscar Malherbe, Adan Amezcua, and Jaime Arturo Ladino.

Enhanced Multilateral Drug Control

We are also seeking to enhance multilateral counter-drug cooperation throughout the region. Circumstances in the hemisphere increasingly lend themselves to a greater emphasis on multilateral initiatives. Our multilateral objective is to establish a counter-drug alliance for the hemisphere, which would have explicit counternarcotics goals, commitments, and responsibilities for nations in the region. As part of the Miami Summit follow-up, a hemispheric counternarcotics strategy was negotiated, which was centered around both the 1996 anti-drug strategy for the hemisphere established by the CICAD (the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission) of the OAS and the 1988 UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Specific actions have been taken to execute this strategy. Working through CICAD, more than 40 recommendations for implementing the principles of the strategy have been elaborated.

The ONDCP report identifies further steps needed to implement such a hemispheric alliance. First of all, countries should develop national plans to reduce drug use, trafficking, and production, with methods for evaluating their own progress. In the report we recommend that CICAD should be charged with establishing a multilateral group to monitor progress in implementation of national plans and to promote opportunities for enhanced hemispheric cooperation. The United States will seek hemispheric support at the 1998 Summit of the Americas for implementing the steps necessary for establishing such a hemispheric counternarcotics alliance. Our efforts to improve multilateral drug control efforts will complement and reinforce our bilateral counternarcotics programs. The creation of a hemispheric counternarcotics alliance will also strengthen our own national efforts to control drug production, shipment, and consumption.

Increasing Bilateral Cooperation

The U.S. is moving methodically to consolidate advances in bilateral counternarcotics cooperation with Mexico across a broad front, including law enforcement and intelligence cooperation, training, information sharing, and extradition. Progress in these areas will occur at different rates, as some pose greater sensitivities for the Government of Mexico and some Mexican institutions are able to accommodate change faster than others. Our objective is to make consistent broad progress in as many areas as possible.

Mexican accomplishments collectively illustrate the improvements in our bilateral anti-narcotics cooperation. One key to further progress lies in the continued development of Mexican judicial and law enforcement institutions. Reflecting the acknowledged importance of counternarcotics progress, there is continued aggressive engagement with the drug issue by the senior leaders if the Mexican Government. They recognize that counternarcotics and anti-corruption reforms are critical not only to U.S.-Mexican relations, but to Mexico's national security and public safety, and to developing greater confidence by the Mexican people in governmental institutions.

The Problem of Corruption

While the Zedillo Administration is committed to taking aggressive action against drug trafficking, it acknowledges that Mexico's justice and public security institutions remain seriously flawed; police and military forces lack the tools and training needed to counter decisively the major criminal organizations operating in Mexico. They also lack the pay scales, job security, strong public support, and other incentives to resist intimidation and bribes by the criminal organizations. The Government of Mexico is taking the first steps needed to enhance the capabilities and security of its personnel, to establish checks and balances within the system, and to combat entrenched corruption. In a September 10 speech before the Chamber of Deputies, Mexican Attorney Madrazo said:

"...the people's most serious concern is public security. The citizens feel impotent against crime and perceive the authorities as inefficient to combat it. The public is equally afraid of criminals and the police."

Corruption cannot be reined in instantaneously or even in the short term. The Zedillo administration has demonstrated the political will and initiated the actions to begin the long process of change through institutional transformation. For example, the Government of Mexico is now using new counter-drug units to attack major trafficking organizations. These units include the Organized Crime Unit under the Attorney General and the military Air-mobile Special Forces units. These units have been carefully vetted and increasingly well-trained, -paid, and -equipped. The U.S. has provided extensive training and substantial material assistance to these units. They are manned by Mexican officers we trust and with whom we can cooperate, share sensitive information, and from whom we can receive dependable information and assistance.

Still the building of reliable institutions is at a very early stage. The specialized units to which I referred, particularly those under the Attorney General, are brand new and have only recently begun operations. A much larger task will be the establishment of the new Office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Health, to replace the now-dismantled anti-narcotics institute which was dismantled following the arrest of Gen. Gutirrez Rebollo in February. The Government of Mexico has plans for the recruitment, vetting, and training of this new force, but its establishment as an effective force will be a long-term effort.

Other Problem Areas

In other areas, our cooperation is improving less rapidly than we would like. Certain law enforcement cooperation is still hampered by residual mistrust of national motives and understandable political sensitivity to cross-border operations. Extraditions of Mexican nationals remain painfully slow and not in step with comparable U.S. extraditions to Mexico. However, cooperation on extradition should improve. For example, we have negotiated a protocol to our bilateral extradition treaty which would allow temporary surrender of suspects for trial in one country while charges are pending in the other. We expect that the numbers of persons extradited and deported to the United States will continue to rise slowly. It is important to note that the Government of Mexico has agreed that narcotics offenses are among those for which it is prepared to extradite its citizens to the United States. As Foreign Secretary Gurria told a number of Members of Congress during a meeting with them last week in discussing the problem of extradition for serious crimes, "in considering the requests by the U.S. for extradition, we focused not on the nationality of the individual but on the seriousness of the crime."

HLCG Meeting (October 22-23)

We had an opportunity last week to review with the Mexican authorities both the problems and the accomplishments in our common effort against narcotics use and trafficking, in a regular meeting of our cabinet-level body which oversees these matters, the High Level Contact Group for Drug Control. This group, under the chairmanship of General McCaffrey on the U.S. side and of Foreign Secretary Gurria and Attorney General Madrazo on the Mexican side, is responsible for setting the overall direction of our counternarcotics efforts, and for monitoring our performance. We talked about many of the things that I mention in this statement. In particular, we talked about progress in developing a common strategy to meet the narcotics threat to our two countries, an effort which is well along. Overall, I was impressed over the course of a day and a half of intense discussions with the seriousness of purpose of both governments in trying to make progress against narcotics smuggling, and with the pragmatic approach adopted by participants on both sides. No one at these meetings underestimated the magnitude and difficulty of the task which confronts our two governments. No one expected to see immediate, or even rapid, progress. I think this kind of hard-headed attitude is exactly what is needed. And I believe that these regular meetings of the High Level Contact Group are essential to keeping both our governments working at peak efficiency. We use these meetings both to identify and resolve differences and to keep our bureaucracies driving forward.

Counternarcotics in Context

Our bilateral relationship has shown a better sense of common purpose and pragmatic cooperation under President Zedillo than at any time in recent memory. Our objective is to continue the long process of developing a qualitatively different bilateral relationship with Mexico in which mutuality of interests and the health of the overall relationship are strong enough to weather the inevitable ups and downs of individual issues. Improvements in the broader nature of the relationship will in turn help us in pursuing cooperation on specific issue areas, such as counternarcotics. Changing the fundamental assumptions underlying the relationship will require great sensitivity, however, as the Mexican Government sometimes finds it politically difficult to reorient toward greater cooperation with the U.S. We are thus engaged in a long-term enterprise in which patience and steadiness of purpose will pay us dividends in the end.

President Zedillo's Visit

As was noted at the outset, just two weeks after these hearings President Zedillo will make an official visit to Washington. Counternarcotics will be high on the agenda for his discussions with the President, as befits an issue of great importance on both sides of the border. The Mexican Government is also very aware of the vital role our Congress plays in bilateral relations. President Zedillo will therefore seek an opportunity to meet with congressional leaders and committee chairmen in areas of bilateral interest. Among the many issues making up the complex mosaic of the U.S.-Mexico relationship, counternarcotics cooperation would certainly be prominent in the discussion at any such meeting.

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