Distrust Yields To Cooperation

By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service

MEXICO CITY, May 21 -- U.S. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, standing beside his Mexican counterpart, hailed what he called a new era in U.S.-Mexican
law enforcement cooperation today and said the "border is a line that unites us, not divides us."

Ashcroft said he chose Mexico for his first trip outside the United States, just as President Bush did, to underscore the importance of the U.S. relationship with
Mexico and to focus on improved cooperation in law enforcement.

Mexico has stepped up the extradition of Mexican suspects wanted in the United States. Police here have also returned at a record pace American fugitives who had
fled south of the border. In return, the FBI plans to intensify specialized training for Mexican police officers.

In the past, the relationship between law enforcement agencies in the two countries has been marked by distrust, and the two sides often refused to share intelligence.
While the problems have not been completely solved, Bush and President Vicente Fox have pledged to put those days in the past.

Ashcroft and the Mexican attorney general, Rafael Macedo de la Concha, put finishing touches on an agreement for prosecuting criminal suspects facing charges in
both countries. Eduardo Ibarrola, deputy attorney general for international affairs, said the pact allows suspects to face consecutive trials in each country before
beginning to serve their prison terms.

In the past, a suspect convicted in either Mexico or the United States would have to complete his prison term before being sent to the other country to stand trial on
the second charge. That often meant a delay of years before the second trial, during which time evidence would grow cold.

Ibarrola cited at least one case in which someone committed a crime in Mexico specifically to be sentenced to prison in Mexico to delay his extradition to the United
States for trial there.

The two countries' chief law enforcement officers also discussed the perennial problems of drug and arms trafficking and money laundering, but announced no new
proposals.

Ashcroft said Bush favors a new guest worker program to allow more Mexicans to work legally in the United States. The details of such a program, which would
have to be approved by Congress, are still to be worked out.

Ashcroft also addressed the highly charged issue of the mounting deaths of immigrants trying to illegally cross the border. An average of about one Mexican a day
dies trying to cross the 2,100-mile border. The growing number of crosses in the ground marking those deaths has become an ugly symbol of divisions between the
two neighbors.

"Our first priority is border safety," Ashcroft said.

Researcher Bianca Toness contributed to this report.

                                               © 2001