The White House Briefing Room
February 15, 1999
PRESS BRIEFING BY SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SANDY BERGER, OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY GENERAL BARRY MCCAFFREY, AND NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DEPUTY DIRECTOR LAEL BRAINARD
3:22 P.M. EST
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Merida, Yucatan, Mexico)
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release February 15, 1999
PRESS BRIEFING BY
SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT,
ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO,
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SANDY BERGER,
OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY
GENERAL BARRY MCCAFFREY,
AND NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DEPUTY DIRECTOR LAEL BRAINARD
Fiesta Americana Hotel
Merida, Yucatan, Mexico
3:22 P.M. EST
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: In our meetings today, President Clinton and
President Zedillo, and half a dozen members of each Cabinet, discussed literally
dozens of issues on which the United States and Mexico are good-faith results
oriented partners. I should also mention that reflecting the breadth of the
relationship between our nations, I was particularly pleased that members of the
U.S. Congress and the Mexican Congress joined us here to hold a meeting of their
own.
Let me give you an overview of our discussions here today, and then
Sandy Berger and Janet Reno will speak more about the bilateral and law
enforcement issues.
The two Presidents reviewed global and regional financial developments,
looking both at ways to support sound economic policies in our hemisphere and at
bilateral trade issues. They discussed migration, which remains a challenge for
both nations, and renewed their commitment to fight trafficking in human beings
and to protect the human rights of all migrants. And they talked about law
enforcement and anti-narcotics issues.
Our cooperation is not ideal for either side, but its success is
critical to the future of both. So our Presidents continue to look for ways to
improve the process, pledging today to conclude a new agreement on precursor
chemicals and across-the-board to focus clearly on what works and what does not.
The two Presidents also discussed environmental cooperation, which is
critical to improving our citizens' quality of life and to safeguarding our
continents' ecological treasures. During our signing ceremony at the Hacienda
Temozon, Cabinet members signed a variety of agreements on subjects as varied as
fighting wildfires and fighting tuberculosis. We also discussed cutting
emissions of greenhouse gases and protecting Mexico's biodiversity. And we
agreed to step up environmental cooperation along our border, and reviewed
progress on the NAFTA agreements on labor and the environment. We also agreed
to expand co-chairing for U.S. and Mexican airlines. Already, each nation
receives more flights from the other than from any other nation.
Finally, Foreign Secretary Green and I reviewed our regional and global
cooperation, which is an increasingly important tool for promoting our shared
interests. We signed today an agreement on development cooperation in our
hemisphere. And this will allow us to coordinate our assistance, particularly
to our neighbors who are still struggling with the effects of
hurricanes Mitch and Georges.
No relationship the United States has with any nation
affects the daily lives of more American than do our ties with
Mexico. And that's why our Presidents have met 10 times during
their tenure. And that's why we continue to work together on
such a broad range of issues, some where a partnership is close
and easy and others where it's, frankly, difficult. The results
of today's meetings show beyond a doubt why our efforts are
worthwhile.
Thank you. And I think now -- Sandy?
MR. BERGER: Let me spend a moment on the agreements
that were finalized today and that were the subject of most of
this discussion in the larger meeting that took place between the
Cabinet Secretaries on both sides.
Secretary Albright has mentioned the civil aviation
agreement, which will liberalize air transportation. This will
essentially provide perhaps the largest cochairing area in the
entire world and will have enormous benefit for travelers and
airlines between the two countries.
A second agreement that was signed by the Attorney
General and by the Foreign Secretary -- I'm sure she'll comment
on this later -- involves cooperation against border violence, to
help prevent incidents of violence along the border by developing
procedures among law enforcement agencies who are responding to
calls for assistance, developing training programs and
formalizing communications between the two governments.
A third agreement that was announced today involves
U.S.-Mexican economic cooperation, a new financing agreement to
support U.S. exports to Mexico. The Ex-Im Bank of the United
States announced -- Mr. Harmon was here -- that they will provide
up to $4 billion in export financing over the next two years to
support Mexico's purchase of U.S. goods and services. This is
important for both countries, because with the international
financial crisis Mexico has had difficulties in terms of access
to capital markets, and, of course, it will be good for the
United States because this will increase our exports to Mexico,
which are already growing at about 11 percent a year.
Another agreement reached today involved cooperation in
law enforcement. Again, the Attorney General may comment on this
later, but it involves enhanced consultation involving
cross-border law enforcement activities and also an offer by the
United States to provide technical assistance in training the new
federal preventative police force, which the Mexican government
announced last week that it was forming in an ambitious
undertaking to try to improve its capabilities in the war against
drugs.
There is, in addition, an agreement to work together,
as we did when the fires were taking place here in Mexico, to
work on fire prevention. The President announced an additional
$1.2 million towards a $5.7 million commitment by the United
States to support Mexican efforts to improve fire management --
this is essentially in forest areas -- and alternatives to the
slash and burn agriculture and logging practices that have caused
many of these problems.
General McCaffrey, I'm sure, will comment about an
important step in our drug cooperation, and that is the
establishment of binational performance measures of effectiveness
that is concrete, measurable, objective, joint commitments that
will mark and measure success going forward in the fight against
drugs.
Finally, the President and President Zedillo agreed to
advance our already quite pervasive cooperation in the health
area by cooperating in controlling and monitoring the spread of
drug-resistant tuberculosis, which is a resurgent health threat
both in Mexico and in the United States. And all of these were
discussed either between the two Presidents or in the meetings
between the delegations.
General McCaffrey.
GENERAL MCCAFFREY: Very briefly, there were two things
worthy of comment. The high level Contact Group released today
the performance measures of effectiveness. And they're available
for you in English. We have been working at this for about a
year. It is our follow-on to the notion that we have a joint
strategy built around 16 alliance principles. Now what we're
trying to do is in a practical way describe how do we implement,
evaluate and monitor what we're doing. And this is it. And
there's 82 variables we're going to track.
We hope we got it right. A year from now we'll know.
Some of them already have data bases associated with them. We're
going to start monitoring patiently, month by month, and build on
these. This took a lot of effort inside the U.S. government to
agree to it, never mind inside the Mexican government. We're
pleased that it's on the table and we can now use it as a tool.
The second thing we talked about, Minister del la
Fuente and his delegation and I early this morning had a meeting
to review the progress of the last year of demand reduction
cooperation. As many of you are aware, we brought together the
first binational commission to study the issue of reduction of
use of drugs in both countries in El Paso eight months ago.
Today we are jointly announcing that on June 23rd in Tijuana, the
Mexicans will host the second annual meeting.
We have some, we think, solid ways now to enhance this
partnership in terms of common epidemiological data collection in
terms of sharing of scientific and medical information on drug
treatment, and indeed on cooperation in drug prevention programs
among the 10 million people that live in close proximity to that
border.
We also continue to work on the issue -- Minister
Labastida brought a delegation last week to Mexico to lay out
their own thinking on a $500 million, two-year effort to enhance
training of Mexican anti-drug institutions, and indeed to bring
aboard a lot of new technology. And so I took the delegation
over to their embassy in Washington, listened to their thinking,
and now we'll try and build upon their own ideas.
All in all, we think we are on track in the coming two
years to turn over a drug cooperation enterprise that is
significantly better than the one we found. That's what we were
up to.
MS. BRAINARD: I'm going to spend about 30 seconds or
maybe a minute on the economic relationship. President Zedillo
and President Clinton met at a time when the state of the
economic relationship is extremely strong. As Secretary Albright
suggested, the two Presidents talked about their mutual interest
in financial stability in the region and the importance of every
country in the region continuing on the reform path.
In Mexico, that continued commitment to reform has
yielded one of the strongest economies in the hemisphere this
year with 4.6 percent growth. In fact, around the world, the
U.S.-Mexican economic relationship has been one of our bright
spots. Trade with Mexico has helped to insulate us from the
Asian financial crisis while exports to the Pacific Rim were down
19 percent. Our exports to Mexico were up by roughly 11 percent.
And a similar story can be told for Mexico.
The other thing that the Presidents talked about was
how remarkably strong NAFTA has proven to be in its fifth year.
Over the course of the last five years, Mexico has become our
second largest export market, surpassing Japan, an economy which
is 12 times larger and has contributed one-fifth of our overall
export growth, which as many of you know has been one of the most
important contributors to our overall growth story.
The other thing is that a million American jobs now
depend on trade with Mexico. That's up 45 percent since the
beginning of NAFTA. So we're meeting at a good time, and as
Sandy Berger mentioned earlier, the Presidents agreed to
undergird and expand that strong economic relationship with two
very significant agreements -- the EX-IM Bank agreement will
permit exports to continue flowing, and the $4 billion worth of
credit support we estimate will support about 60,000 jobs in the
United States.
The civil aviation agreement also is a very good one,
which all of the U.S. airlines have been very enthusiastic about.
Just to give you a sense of how many more opportunities will be
created, not just in the airline area, but also in tourism and in
related areas, by this joint marketing and sales agreement --
there are currently about 100 route structures between Mexican
and U.S. cities, and there are 10,000 pending
applications. If those applications are realized, it will become
the largest air services market for the United States.
..........
...........
Q Ms. Reno, President Clinton today said that no one
is winning the war on drugs. You've been involved in the
prosecution end of this for years. Can it, in fact, ever be won?
ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I think that working together
under the President's and General McCaffrey's leadership, we have
instituted in the United States an effort aimed at demand
reduction, aimed at enforcement and intervention. It won't
happen overnight, but I think we can substantially reduce the use
of illegal drugs in our country.
Q What about the supply --
ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I am impressed with the Mexican
commitment to doing something about it, to recognizing that it
can't happen overnight, that sometimes there are more
frustrations then there are victories. I've been in this for a
long time and I understand how long it takes. But they are
committed, they're dedicated to doing it, and I think they can
succeed given time.
Q General McCaffrey, the President said today there
had been increased cooperation and he said Mexico should not be
penalized when they're making this effort. Isn't it fair to
conclude that the Secretary of State will recommend
recertification?
GENERAL MCCAFFREY: It seems to me what I have been
engaged in personally for three years is building partnership and
cooperation. The certification process is the federal law, we
will comply with it. What we're trying to achieve is continuing
some of the positive data that's on the table. We believe their
eradication program is successful.
You know, as the CIA looks at these satellite
photographs -- there are 18 million hectors of growing area --
it's clear just from watching the patterns what ends up to be
about 5,500 hectors of opium that these people are fearful that
the PGR and the army is going to try and eradicate their crop.
We think they're doing their job. We also think the Mexican Navy
and the Coast Guard are cooperating. We believe there is
exchange of intelligence. We believe they are making an effort
on demand reduction. We believe they will invest in interdiction
on their southern border.
Again, I wouldn't characterize anything that we're
doing as aimed at 1 March, but two years from now, is this a more
balanced, productive, counterdrug cooperative effort -- I think
that's where we're headed.
Q Is the answer to that question yes?
Q The standards that you announced today, can they
be used at some future point to set binding targets that a
certification process could be --
GENERAL MCCAFFREY: We should be careful on our
language. I urge you to look at those 82 variables. They're
very carefully constructed. Some are tighter than others. Some
of the targets are due as early as September. They're right
around the corner. There are deliverables there. We will be
able to measure what we're accomplishing. But the goal of this
isn't so much a grading sheet as trying to keep us both on this
cooperative track. But you're going to find that there are some
hard objectives there. What we've said is a year from today
we'll go back, June of 2000, and look and see if these 82 were
right. But I think we've got it just about right for now.
Q General McCaffrey, what do the provisions call for
if you don't meet the goals at each of these levels. And how
does this proposal really advance the relationship between Mexico
and the U.S.? Because about a year ago you all presented these
very same measures and had theoretically agreed to them.
GENERAL MCCAFFREY: Well, let me, if I may, now, change
the assertion. This is what we did a year ago -- it's a strategy
and it's taken us another year to try and turn it into concrete
performance measures. I might add, to be fair, we got our U.S.
strategy done two years ago; we finally got our performance
measures of effectiveness agreed on under the law about two weeks
ago.
So there's no question that it is hard work to get two
sovereign democratic nations to agree on practical ways of
cooperating across a range of these counterdrug responsibilities.
But I think these are real documents, this is a real partnership.
There are planes, boats, training seminars, intelligence sharing
-- there is reality behind all of this.
Q And, again, what does it call for if, in fact, you
don't meet the objectives you set for yourself?
GENERAL MCCAFFREY: Well, again, I think what we
believe is that this is a way to keep us on track to partnership
as opposed to calling it a grading sheet for mutual
recrimination.
Now, we've tried to make the point to the Mexican
authorities, which I think is a valid one, that the centerpiece
of the President's national drug strategy -- back to the other
point -- this cancer affecting American society, the centerpiece
is demand reduction. We're also aware the United States is a
drug producing nation -- particularly methamphetamines, PCP,
Dutch-imported MDMA, et cetera. I think the Mexicans have now
accepted the notion that if we're going to get through this
10-year effort together they, too, will recognize our sort of
binational responsibility to work against interdiction as well as
demand reduction.
I think it's a much changed atmosphere from when
Secretary Perry and I first came down here four years ago. This
is a new world we're dealing with, in my view.
Q General McCaffrey, could you comment, please, on
exactly what sort of support the U.S. is offering to the Mexican
federal police force; and also, what effect this will have in
drug fighting? Because the Mexicans say this is not an anti-drug
force, they're not anti-drug police --
GENERAL MCCAFFREY: I think you're talking about the
new agency they're going to stand up? Well, the Attorney General
could more usefully address that.
ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: As I understand it, there are
two initiatives, one aimed at technology and other support and
assistance to develop an intelligence capability; and, two, the
federal preventative police force. But I think it's all in its
formative stage. And what Director Freeh and I have said is that
if we can be of assistance, if we can be supportive, if we can
provide training and assistance, we'd like to cooperate in every
way that we can.
One of the best efforts that I have seen involved
bringing together Mexican prosecutors and investigators, together
with U.S. prosecutors and investigators, at a session at our
Columbia, South Carolina Advocacy Center. We're going to repeat
that, as I understand it, in April, here in Mexico. And to have
the two nations come together, learn about each other's processes
and laws has been extraordinarily helpful in developing a
cooperative effort along the border.
Q General, is there any oversight of how the U.S.
cooperation in the drug war is being used in Mexico? Mexican
human rights groups have expressed a fear that the increased --
General McCaffrey, I'm sorry -- that stepping up the drug war is
increasing human rights violations within Mexico. Do you have
any oversight capability?
GENERAL MCCAFFREY: The Attorney General and I are both
aware of that concern. It's one I share. Part of our program on
the U.S. side of the border clearly has been an attempt to
provide a more coherent law enforcement capability backed up by
National Guard and other factors. So we are concerned about
protecting cross-border movement, people's lives. And I think
there's an absolute commitment on our part.
Everything we do in this effort at the border has to be
done in cooperation with Mexico. It has to be open books. When
we talked about technology, nonintrusive detection technology, we
gave Mexican authorities access to our technology. They're
buying it; they're fielding it. I think on all of these issues
-- every August I go down the border, go to the various critical
points and then cross the border and listen to Mexican
authorities. We're trying to remain open to their concerns.
Q -- human rights groups, you're talking more about
the problems in southern Mexico where sometimes you sort of see
-- drug interdiction are in the same place. They're expressed
concern that U.S. aid in the drug war is being used for other
purposes in Mexico. What sort of oversight does the U.S.
government have --
GENERAL MCCAFFREY: As far as we know, there's
absolutely no evidence ever that U.S. training assistance or
equipment has been used for anything but counterdrug operations.
And as we get into this new era with Minister Labastida's attempt
to bring together a very significant attempt -- you were talking
a couple of hundred small boats, aircraft, radars, better
intelligence -- as they move into that area, I think you'll see
that the focus is clearly going to be on stopping this massive
movement of drugs out of the north coast of Colombia, trying to
get into the western Caribbean and also in the eastern Pacific
and into Mexico. That's what they're going to try and stop with
this new effort.
Q Could I go back one question? This new police
force -- is it your all's understanding that they are going to be
involved in fighting drugs, or do they have a different mission?
ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: My understanding is that it is
in formative stage and Mexican authorities should really discuss
it so that it is done accurately and clearly. What we have said
is that either in the intelligence aspect of it, the initiatives
that we discussed for this new combination of forces, we would be
happy to assist in every way that we can.
Q So you don't know?
ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I think it would be more
appropriate and far less presumptuous of me to let the Mexicans
discuss it.
Q Secretary Albright, one point -- you talked during
the impeachment trial about the impact it was having in terms of
foreign policy. Does the fact that it's over, the uncertainty is
over, does that make any difference at this point? Does that
help at all?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Having been with a number of
foreign leaders yesterday, they all said that they were very glad
that it was over and that the United States had reproven its
sanity.
Q Is she running, or not?
MR. LOCKHART: I think the President was particularly
unclear on that subject today, and I have nothing to say to clear
it up.
All done? These lights are a little bit difficult on
the sunburn. Anything else for me? Week ahead? Good. Bye,
guys. This was fun.
END 3:50 P.M. (L)