GOP Wants Change on Mexico

CNN March 25, 1999 GOP Wants Change on Mexico

                  By Douglas Farah
                  Washington Post Foreign Service
                  Thursday, March 25, 1999; Page A27

                  Leading House Republicans, citing new allegations that senior Mexican
                  military and political officials are involved in drug trafficking, announced
                  yesterday they will seek to overturn President Clinton's decision to certify
                  Mexico as a full partner in the fight against illicit drugs.

                  The allegations were laid out yesterday by William F. Gately, a retired
                  senior Customs Service official, who, under oath before the House
                  Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources,
                  said undercover investigations last year found evidence that the Mexican
                  defense minister, Gen. Enrique Cervantes, was trying to launder $150
                  million. Senior members of the office of the presidency in Mexico were
                  also trying to launder undetermined amounts, he added.

                  Despite a history of widespread corruption in Mexico's law enforcement
                  agencies and its military, Clinton certified on March 1 that Mexico was
                  "fully cooperating" in fighting drug trafficking. Congress can overturn the
                  certification decision if both houses approve doing so within 30 days of
                  the initial announcement.

                  Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the subcommittee, and Rep.
                  Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.), chairman of the International Relations
                  Committee, co-sponsored a bill that would decertify Mexico but allow the
                  president to waive the economic penalties accompanying such a decision.
                  Congressional staffers said the resolution was receiving broad bipartisan
                  support in the House, but the Senate was cooler to the idea.

"The president's decision to certify Mexico as fully cooperating cannot and
ought not stand unchallenged," Gilman said.

                  Gately, whose allegations were initially reported last week in the New
                  York Times, said a large money-laundering investigation known as
                  Casablanca was shut down last year under political pressure. The
                  shutdown came despite 15 audio and video cassettes from the
                  investigation that showed drug traffickers wanted to launder an additional
                  $1.15 billion, he charged.

                  "It is indisputable that the secretary of defense of Mexico was identified as
                  one of the owners of the money on several occasions" during the
                  investigation, Gately said in his testimony, explaining that Cervantes was
                  identified as the owner of $150 million of the total amount. Two other
                  drug traffickers, he said, each owned $500 million of the total.

                  Under questioning, Gately said the tapes also contained a reference to the
                  office of the presidency, but he did not elaborate. He acknowledged that
                  while the tapes contained references to the secretary of defense, they did
                  not mention Cervantes by name.

                  Gately's assertions about the closing of the Casablanca operation, which
                  resulted in the seizure of $100 million, and the indictment of three Mexican
                  financial institutions and 112 individuals, have been challenged by others
                  involved in the investigation, including Raymond W. Kelly, the
                  commissioner of customs.

The Mexican government has expressed outrage at the allegations, which
they have denied.

                  But Rep. Robert L. Barr Jr. (R-Ga.), said that, in a series of classified
                  briefings of the subcommittee by U.S. intelligence agencies, "the
                  information points to corruption at the very highest level of the Mexican
                  government."

                  Gately said that, after the Casablanca operation was shut down, no one
                  "reviewed or evaluated these tapes and transcripts for their evidentiary
                  value," despite the briefing he said he personally gave to his superiors. He
                  said he believed the operation was shut down prematurely and the
                  allegations were not investigated because of "political considerations."

                  In a letter to Mica, customs commissioner Kelly said any allegation that
                  the operation was shut down "so that U.S. officials could keep
                  high-ranking Mexican government officials from being investigated as part
                  of the case, is grossly untrue and irresponsible. . . . At no time was any
                  evidence developed that could substantiate these allegations."