Pubdate: Thu, 01 Jun 2000
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2000 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  Viewpoints Editor, P.O. Box 4260 Houston, Texas 77210-4260
Fax: (713) 220-3575
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html

CLINTON PRESSURING GLOBAL DRUG KINGPINS WITH MONEY SQUEEZE

WASHINGTON - The Clinton administration is trying to put the
financial squeeze on the world's biggest drug kingpins, but there are
fears innocent people and businesses could get caught in the wringer.

The administration is required, under legislation approved last year,
to provide Congress by today with a list of what it considers to be
the top foreign drug traffickers.

Those on the list -- and their foreign business associates -- would
have their U.S. assets frozen in most cases. Americans would be barred
from doing business with them.

"We're hitting these people (traffickers) where it really hurts," said
Rep. Porter J. Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence.

However, civil libertarians are concerned that assets will be seized
before foreign companies have a chance to defend themselves. Some U.S.
and foreign companies fear they will be penalized for unwittingly
doing business with traffickers.

And Mexico is wary of the new law, known as the Foreign Drug Kingpin
Designation Act. Though supporting its goals of fighting traffickers,
Mexican leaders worry the list could become politicized and influenced
by Mexico's critics in Congress, creating a "scandalous political
atmosphere," Juan Rebolledo, Mexico's undersecretary of foreign
relations, said in Mexico City.

Mexican officials and legislators have raised their concerns in
meetings with their U.S. counterparts in recent months.

In a statement from Mexico City late Wednesday, the Mexican foreign
relations department repeated that it "fully agrees with the spirit of
the law." But it expressed concerns about whether foreign companies in
the United States will be given due process of law.

It said it has "demanded the necessary care so that the political
process before the U.S. Congress doesn't affect, with unfounded
charges, the prestige of innocent Mexican individuals or
businesses."

Sen. Paul Coverdell, who sponsored the legislation, said he expects
the "angst" about the list will calm down after its release.

"I know the list will be very conservative, probably by and large
people already under indictment in the United States," said Coverdell,
R-Ga. "It will not be a long list."

A senior administration official said that the first part of the list
- -- the names of major drug traffickers -- was being reviewed Wednesday
by President Clinton in Lisbon, Portugal, where he was meeting with
European Union leaders. Those names will be released today and the
traffickers' assets will be frozen immediately, the official said,
speaking on condition of anonymity.

The other part, naming the traffickers' business associates, was being
prepared by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets
Control, but it was unclear when it would be made public. Other names
and businesses could be added later.

The list could contain names of suspects who have been publicly
identified before, such as Alejandro Bernal Madrigal of Colombia, the
Arellano Felix brothers in Mexico, Wei Hsueh-kang, a Chinese national,
and former Myanmar warlord Khun Sa.

Naming business associates has raised greater concerns. TMM, a giant
Mexican shipping company that has long fought rumors linking it to
drug trafficking, hired a Washington firm to lobby on its behalf. TMM
spokesman Luis Calvillo said the company is now reassured that the
U.S. government "has taken the adequate steps to make sure that
innocents aren't hurt."

The United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce is still troubled,
though, that businesses linked to drug trafficking would have to fight
in federal court to clear their names.

"It doesn't really enforce the concept of innocent until proven
guilty," said Jeff Sparshott, spokesman for the chamber in Washington.

Supporters of the law note that it was modeled after a 1995 executive
order that gave the government the power to penalize Colombian drug
traffickers and their associates. Few due process complaints have been
raised over the blocking of Colombian assets, they say.

Also, a five-member commission has been formed to evaluate the
procedure of blocking assets and judicial remedies available to anyone
affected by the legislation.

Coverdell said he expects U.S. companies will be warned if they are
doing business with foreign companies linked to drug traffickers --
and will be expected to sever ties.

"We live in an environment today that institutions have to pay
attention to who their clients are," he said. 
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