Pubdate: Fri, 22 Sep 2000
Source: Arizona Daily Star (AZ)
Copyright: 2000 Pulitzer Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.azstarnet.com/
Author: Tim Steller

FOX'S DRUG-WAR IDEA WOULD BE BOON TO BAD GUYS, MCCAFFREY SAYS

If Mexico's military withdraws from fighting drugs, as suggested by 
President-elect Vicente Fox, that country's anti-drug efforts will suffer, 
said Barry McCaffrey, the U.S. drug-control director.

In an interview with the Arizona Daily Star, McCaffrey said Mexico's 
military has played an indispensable role in fighting drug trafficking.

"The Mexican armed forces, both the maritime service and the army, have 
been vital to both interdiction and eradication. It's hard to imagine in 
the coming years anything replacing that capability," McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey is in El Paso today to announce a reorganization of American 
anti-drug efforts on the Southwest border, and he will be in Tucson tomorrow.

He said he had already mentioned his support of the Mexican military's role 
in the anti-drug efforts to Fox's transition team.

Fox's anti-crime plan calls for "demilitarizing" law enforcement in Mexico. 
That would reverse the trend under outgoing President Ernesto Zedillo of 
placing more and more soldiers in police roles, especially in anti-drug 
efforts.

Fox, who takes office Dec. 1, believes the military has assumed too many 
police roles, exposing it to corruption, his advisers have said.

Mexican soldiers have become a common sight along the U.S. border, setting 
up checkpoints on some roads and frequently patrolling in Humvees. They 
also walk the underground washes that flow between Nogales, Ariz., and 
Nogales, Sonora.

Just Tuesday, two Mexican soldiers emerged from an underground wash about a 
half-mile north of the border, Border Patrol spokesman Joseph Pankoke said. 
An agent shouted down to the soldiers that they were in the United States, 
and they walked back into the tunnel, he said.

Mexico's military patrols are reducing the drug supply, said McCaffrey, a 
retired four-star general in the Army.

"There's been a terrific enhancement in interdiction capabilities and 
binational cooperation," he said. "Seizure rates are skyrocketing in Mexico."

The Clinton administration's faith in the military's ability to battle drug 
trafficking is also underscoring aid to Colombia. The U.S. is providing 
Colombia $1.3 billion in military funding for fighting drugs.

The militarization strategy in Mexico has led to questionable successes and 
unmistakable failures, said George Grayson, a professor of government at 
the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

"The actual interdiction rates are relatively low, and you open an 
institution with a relatively good reputation to the danger of corruption," 
said Grayson, a student of the Mexican military. "It's a counterproductive 
policy, because we see reports in the Mexican press all the time of 
military officials being hauled off to the stockade."

McCaffrey acknowledged the Mexican military's involvement in anti-drug 
efforts has exposed Mexico's military to corruption. But he pointed to 
other levels of Mexico's law enforcement as more corrupt.

"There is still enormous corruption and violence in state-level law 
enforcement in Mexico," he said.

But the most prominent recent arrests have been in the military. On Aug. 
31, the Defense Ministry announced it had jailed two senior army generals 
on drug charges. They were the first jailings of high-ranking generals for 
drug corruption since 1997.

That year, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, Mexico's anti-drug czar, was 
imprisoned on charges of protecting suspected cartel leader Amado Carrillo 
Fuentes from arrest.

Despite these high-level arrests, allegations of corruption in the military 
keep reaching higher. In an interview Tuesday from prison with The 
Associated Press, Gutierrez said the Arellano Felix drug trafficking 
organization has received protection from Mexico's defense secretary.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart