Source: San Jose Mercury News Contact: 13 Nov 1997 Section: Page 20A Author: RICARDO SANDOVAL, Mercury News Mexico Bureau ZEDILLO REJECTS CRITICISM Mexican leader indicates U.S. drug habit is an American problem MEXICO CITY In a rare public complaint, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León suggested recently that the United States should pay reparations to his country for the damage wrought by narcotraffickers scurrying to meet Americans' insatiable demand for illicit drugs. The quip set a new tone for Zedillo's planned twohour meeting with President Clinton on Friday in Washington, D.C. Zedillo is expected to deliver a tough Mexican response to U.S. criticism over drug trafficking, albeit in words more diplomatic. He is not, however, expected to present the U.S. government with a bill during his twoday whirl though the U.S. capital, which begins today. The popular Mexican president, lauded for his leadership of a nonpartisan drive to overhaul his country's economy and an entrenched political system, starts his state visit today with a breakfast speech to business leaders. But then he'll get down to business: He meets later in the day with U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, with whom he'll discuss Mexico's stubbornly high foreign debt and repayment prospects amid an improving Mexican economy. After his Friday morning meeting with Clinton, Zedillo will have lunch with Vice President Al Gore. The buzz created by Zedillo's offhand remark about American drug consumption has died down, and his meeting with Clinton is expected to yield only expressions of good will. The two leaders will continue what observers say is a close friendship marked by a likemindedness on trade issues and Mexico's efforts to combat drug trafficking. Zedillo administration sources insist the trip, suggested by Clinton when he visited Mexico City in May, is designed to further negotiations between the neighbors over new trade, arms trafficking and immigration treaties. But drugs continue to be the biggest barrier to complete harmony between the two governments and are expected to dominate Zedillo's visit. ``By speaking out about the impact of the great U.S. consumption of drugs, Zedillo is putting Mexico on more of an offensive footing in its oftenstrained relationship with Washington. . . . He said out loud what many in Latin America are thinking,'' said José Antonio Crespo, chief of political studies at the Center for Economic Studies in Mexico City. ``Many Mexicans are hoping he repeats that thought to Clinton and others this week.'' Crespo said the strong ties between Zedillo and Clinton had helped Mexico by keeping the door open to U.S. assistance in critical times, such as the $20 billion bailout when the Mexican peso crashed in late 1994. But this meeting will be different, analysts said, because Zedillo has gained so much international stature since Mexico's July 6 elections. Zedillo pushed his own party to make that vote different from any in the past 70 years. The Mexican Congress, then dominated by the longruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, complied and passed tough new rules that guaranteed the cleanest elections in Mexican history. The result: worldwide praise for Zedillo, even though his ruling party lost control of the Congress and of Mexico City, where Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, the leftofcenter standardbearer, became the capital city's first elected mayor. With this new clout, Crespo said, Zedillo can get away with tough talk about the United States' heavyhanded antidrug certification process. Members of the U.S. Congress accuse Mexico of failing to prevent the movement of mass quantities of cocaine and marijuana north across the border. Leaders such as California Sen. Dianne Feinstein say that despite Clinton's blessings of Mexico's antidrug campaigns, the country is still riddled with drugrelated corruption and thus should not win recertification next spring as a good ally in the war on drugs. Mexico counters that it is U.S. consumption that fuels the drug trade. Voices within the Zedillo administration have joined others in Latin America to suggest that an independent, international commission be formed to certify drugwar efforts of various countries including the United States. That idea was batted around by Latin American heads of state last week at a summit meeting in Venezuela. Zedillo aides said the Mexican president would probably brief Clinton on that meeting. These private words could prove more important for Zedillo's visit than the maritimetrade, environmentalprotection, and criminalextradition pacts that might emerge from his meetings with Clinton administration officials.