Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 24, 1993 TAG: 9308020374
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE W. GRAYSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
How did the government of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari react to the cardinal's cold-blooded murder? Under the leadership of Attorney General Jorge Carpizo McGregor, ex-Supreme Court justice and former head of the National Human Rights Commission, who is as clean as the proverbial hound's tooth, Mexican authorities quickly arrested Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, the don of one of the Sinaloa-based bands believed to have been involved in airport bloodbath, and 10 members of his mob. Also, behind bars in the Almoloya de Juarez high-security prison are three members of the gang headed by Hector Luis "El Guero" Palma Salazar, a Guzman ally who may have fled to the United States.
Carpizo, now referred to as a "law-enforcement vacuum cleaner" because of his house-cleaning efforts, has recently removed 67 federal law-enforcement officials either for aiding local mafioso or for other drug-linked crimes. All told, between July 1, 1990 and June 20, 1992, the Salinas administration discharged 269 federal agents. Doubtless, the sucking sound heard by Ross Perot is that of Carpizo sweeping suspects into the slammer.
To escalate further the war on drugs, President Salinas introduced a package of constitutional and legal reforms on June 10. These proposals, now under consideration by the Chamber of Deputies' Justice Committee, which is chaired by a member of the opposition National Action Party, would amend five articles of the Mexican Constitution. Key legislative provisions, to be voted on later this month, include:
Imposing harsher penalties on corrupt officials and on officials guilty of coercion and torture. (Such acts would become constitutional offenses and, thus, binding on the states as well as on persons involved in organized crime.)
Authorizing rewards for information leading to the arrest of narco-criminals.
Facilitating the extradition of suspects from one state to another, and making it a crime to supply arms or training to drug traffickers.
Specifying detailed penalties for environmental offenses and money laundering.
Requiring that people who enter or leave Mexico report amounts of money in their possession that equal or exceed $10,000.
Decreeing the presence of a defense attorney before a suspect's statement can be admitted in court.
Extending from 72 hours to six days the arraignment period for a person suspected of ties to organized crime.
On June 16, President Salinas also created the National Institute to Combat Drug Trafficking. This entity, patterned after the DEA, will plan, execute, supervise and evaluate efforts to confront the nation's drug problem. "For the first time, all drug-enforcement activities will be under one roof," stated Gustavo Gonzalez Baez, a drug expert in Mexico's Washington embassy.
The Guadalajara incident has spurred closer ties between Mexico and the United States. Cooperation, according to U.S. officials at the border, is particularly noteworthy in the exchange of information and the apprehension of suspects. In part, DEA agents attribute the improved collaboration to the greater professionalism of the authorities appointed by Dr. Carpizo.
Might the reforms spearheaded by Mexico City be designed merely to propitiate U.S. lawmakers who must vote on NAFTA if a recent federal court decision doesn't spike the accord? Although Salinas seeks greater credibility in Washington, several factors argue against such a conclusion. To begin with, Mexico's president does not want his country to endure the ubiquitous violence, loss of political control and corrupted judicial system suffered by Colombia. As he recently stated: " . . . everything that drug traffickers touch . . . turns corrupt and rotten."
In addition, Mexico's leaders realize that, with or without NAFTA, they cannot attract the foreign investment crucial to lofting Mexico from the Third World to the First World, if law and order break down.
Above all, Salinas and most of his cabinet have teen-age children whom they want to grow to maturity in a society that is open, peaceful and free of narcotics trafficking.
For these reasons, during its 55 months in office, the Salinas regime has expanded the budget for the attorney general's office seven-fold, facilitating the destruction of 60,000 hectares of drugs and the confiscation of approximately 200 tons of pure cocaine, almost two tons of heroin and opium paste and 2,000 tons of marijuana.
Skeptics who dismiss recent anti-drug activities as a political nostrum should observe the reforms accomplished 1 1/2 years ago in Mexico's Customs Service, whose name was once synonymous with graft and corruption. Indeed, according to folklore along the frontier, a prospective Mexican customs agent paid $30,000 for his tenured post, only to recoup this outlay during his first year on the job.
To combat this image and such activities, Deputy Treasury Secretary Francisco Gil Diaz, widely known as "Torquemada" because of his harshness toward wrongdoers, replaced scores of customs officials, and implemented new rules and regulations. Thanks to these reforms, the word "mordida," or bribe, no longer haunts the Customs Service.
Moreover, Mexican customs agents eagerly cooperate with U.S. officials in aligning inspection schedules, exchanging information, seizing contraband and employing the same harmonized GATT codes to identify goods.
Approval of NAFTA will enhance this remarkable collaboration and ensure that a growing Mexico has more resources with which to fight drug traffickers and smugglers. Defeat of the accord will strengthen the hand of traditional nationalists, who view with disdain the multiple and productive official contacts between our two countries in narcotics, customs and other sensitive areas. The unintended beneficiaries of a spiked NAFTA will be criminal kingpins.
\ AUTHOR George W. Grayson , who teaches government at William and Mary College, wrote "The North American Free Trade Agreement." He is also a member of the Virginia House of Delegates.
by CNB