DIPLOMACY : Clinton Cabinet Will Take a Warm Spring Break in Mexico

MEXICO CITY —  Jubilant about a series of dramatic steps by Mexico to improve cooperation, President Clinton’s Cabinet takes a spring break in Mexico next week--traveling here for high-level talks aimed at further cementing ties.

In recent weeks, Mexico has extradited citizens to the United States for the first time and has begun to work more closely with the U.S. military, long viewed here with deep suspicion. U.S. officials said both measures could be critical in fighting drug trafficking.

The Clinton administration also goes into the two-day meeting with warm praise for President Ernesto Zedillo’s cautious anti-inflation policies, which have proven controversial here as Mexico grapples with its worst economic recession in six decades.

“This meeting is an opportunity at a high level to keep the momentum going in these areas,” said a Clinton administration official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Led by Secretary of State Warren Christopher, two-thirds of Clinton’s Cabinet is expected to fly to Mexico City for the annual binational meeting.

But in a reflection of the neighbors’ often-contentious relations, the U.S. delegation arrives in the midst of controversies over immigration and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Mexican officials are especially anxious to defuse public outrage here over a string of incidents in California involving illegal immigrants--particularly the televised beating of two Mexicans by Riverside County sheriff’s deputies.

And the U.S. Congress has overwhelmingly passed legislation to keep illegal immigrants out--and to make life more difficult for those who have already arrived.

“Our objective [in the meetings] would be a mechanism . . . through which we could count on increased protection for the human rights of undocumented workers,” a senior Mexican official said in an interview, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Such a mechanism was still being negotiated, officials said. It could involve closer contact between Mexican and U.S. authorities on immigration problems.

The bilateral meetings, starting Monday, are expected to draw the broadest participation ever from a U.S. government, with everyone from the U.S. anti-drug czar to the agriculture secretary attending, officials said.

They come as the Clinton administration has been staunchly defending its Mexico policy against critics such as Republican presidential hopeful Pat Buchanan. High on the meetings’ agenda are such hot-button issues as immigration, drug trafficking and the $50-billion loan package that the U.S. organized last year after Mexico’s peso collapsed.

But reflecting the dramatic increase in cooperation in recent years, the two nations are expected to sign accords in areas such as technology, health and the environment. And they hope to resolve a thorny dispute over North American Free Trade Accord regulations that would allow Mexican and U.S. trucks access to border areas.

“There’s such a broad range of issues, and we have problems in all of them,” U.S. Ambassador James R. Jones said in an interview. “What we do is compartmentalize the problems so that no one of them adversely affects the overall relationship.”

The meeting comes as the Clinton administration is unusually upbeat about Mexico’s commitment to fighting drug trafficking--a top U.S. concern.

Just months after considering economic penalties against Mexico for lack of cooperation, U.S. officials are now praising this country for measures such as two recent agreements that will provide Mexico’s army with U.S. military helicopters and some anti-drug training.

But in a sign of continuing sensitivity over the issue, Mexicans have loudly protested recent charges by DEA officials that drug traffickers were using Mexican banks to launder money.

While Mexican officials have privately acknowledged a money-laundering problem here, critics accused the DEA of meddling in Mexico’s affairs.

A Mexican Foreign Ministry official said Thursday that the two nations will form a group at next week’s meetings to share information and technology to fight money-laundering.

“We are trying to convince the American side that their statements have to be constructive, not accusatory,” the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.