CLUELESS IN WASHINGTON

WHY WASN'T THE U.S. WARNED THAT MEXICO WAS ABOUT TO ARREST ITS OWN TOP DRUG
FIGHTER FOR CORRUPTION?

No one in Washington expected the news. Bill Clinton's
antidrug czar Barry McCaffrey heard it from the State
Department, which had found out about it from reporters.
The Drug Enforcement Administration was caught flatfooted,
as was the CIA. At a press conference, a chagrined Attorney
General Janet Reno said, "What I learned was at the point
after the arrest was made." The man arrested was
McCaffrey's counterpart in Mexico, General Jesus Gutierrez
Rebollo, a man of reputed honesty and heroism whose
appointment only 10 weeks ago McCaffrey had praised
effusively. That image began to fade on Feb. 6, when an
informant told the Mexican Defense Secretary, General
Enrique Cervantes, that Gutierrez was living in a luxury
apartment "whose rent cannot be paid with the salary of a
public official," a statement from Cervantes' office later
said. Summoned to a midnight meeting on the same day,
Mexico's drug czar suffered a heart attack when questioned
about the apartment, and was ordered into a military
hospital.

In the days that followed, investigators discovered a
lot about Gutierrez. Not only had he consorted with drug
traffickers since at least 1993, but the apartment that
triggered the investigation had been given to him by drug
dealer Eduardo Gonzalez Quirarte. He is reputed to be a
lieutenant of one of Mexico's most notorious
narcotraffickers, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, alleged leader of
the Juarez cartel. On Tuesday, Feb. 18, wiretaps reportedly
confirmed that Gutierrez and two top aides had taken
protection money from a Carrillo lieutenant. The general
was then placed under arrest.

Washington officials were stunned. Mexico is the conduit
for as much as 75% of the cocaine that reaches the U.S. The
twoyearold government of President Ernesto Zedillo, which
succeeded a regime peppered with charges of corruption, had
made great efforts to be seen as a credible partner in the
war against drugs. Why then would Zedillo fail to send an
early warning when Gutierrez was first suspectedand as a
result embarrass the Administration? The timing was
especially unfortunate. The arrest took place less than two
weeks before Clinton is to send his annual report to
Congress certifying Mexico's commitment to the antidrug
effort. While Clinton will not decertify Mexico, the news
undercuts his claim that antidrug cooperation has improved
under Zedillo. Mexican Foreign Minister Jose Angel Gurria,
visiting Washington last week, was abruptly summoned to the
White House for a reprimand.

According to a senior Mexican official, however, Zedillo
and Cervantes had huddled after Feb. 6, deciding not to
inform Washingtonand thus risk Clinton's wrathuntil a
solid case developed against Gutierrez. Zedillo may have
seen a chance to flex some badly needed muscle and make
sure Mexico's generals understood that the impetus to nab
Gutierrez came from himand not the U.S. In any case,
Zedillo does not much care for certification. It is, he
told Time, "a rather improper procedure, not very
consistent with the principles of international law."

Gutierrez claims he was part of an undercover plan to
snare Carrillo approved by unnamed "superiors." The
byzantine nature of Mexican politics has led to speculation
that Gutierrez may have been framed and that the U.S. did
indeed push for the arrest. After all, every year at
certification time Mexico seems to stage an antidrug
spectacle. Might not this year's be Gutierrez?

If so, the White House is putting on quite an act of
being angry. It is aghast that the U.S. embassy, the DEA
and the CIA, which all maintain large offices in Mexico
City, failed to report on Gutierrez. DEA officials in
Mexico were not even aware that he had moved into a luxury
apartment. Fumed a top Clinton adviser: "This is clearly a
major intelligence failure." There were other reasons to be
suspicious of Gutierrez. For seven years he had been in
command of Guadalajara, where drug money is known to
contaminate the officer corps. The drug lords he rounded up
were Carrillo rivals. In January, Carrillo evaded capture
when his sister's wedding was raided. Officials now wonder
if he was tipped off by a wellplaced friend.

DEA officials tried to explain the lapse by contending
that their agents are so closely watched by Mexican police
that they can't move around the countrya symptom of the
friction between law enforcers of both countries. The
antagonism, say Washington sources, led to sanitized,
lessthaninformative briefings with Mexican officials.
Thus if Gutierrez received sensitive intelligence, DEA
officials say, it was not from their headquarters. Still,
Gutierrez had other potential, unwitting abettors,
including admiring U.S. embassy operatives. Thoseand the
security of their informantsare now being intensely
scrutinized.

Reported by Tim Padgett/Mexico City and Elaine Shannon/Washington