U.S., Mexico Sign Pacts on Migrants, Drugs, Pollution

MEXICO CITY —  Mexico and the United States signed a series of sweeping agreements Tuesday addressing some of the thorniest issues in their relationship, from improving the treatment of Mexican migrants north of the border to curbing drug trafficking and environmental pollution that threaten the United States from the south.

Ending two days of meetings that brought nine U.S. Cabinet members to Mexico City, Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Mexican Foreign Minister Jose Angel Gurria Trevino called the 11 new agreements “tangible proof” that relations between the two nations--long characterized by suspicion and mistrust--are better and more positive than ever.

Among the most important documents the two officials cited in a signing ceremony hosted by Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo was a four-page agreement enshrining the rights of Mexican citizens in the U.S.--and Americans in Mexico.

The document is the result of Mexico’s pressure on the Clinton administration for “human rights guarantees” to protect its citizens on U.S. soil--whether there legally or illegally. That pressure followed last month’s beatings of two suspected illegal Mexican immigrants by Riverside County sheriff’s deputies and two fatal truck wrecks involving the U.S. Border Patrol and undocumented Mexicans in Temecula and Alpine.

The “memorandum of understanding” largely formalizes practices already in place: granting immediate consular access to anyone arrested in either country, cooperating “at the highest levels” in investigations of violent and serious incidents, and “promoting bicultural sensitivity and understanding related to human rights protection” through government representatives on the border.

Christopher stressed that those rights apply in each country to citizens of the other country. While conceding that most points in the agreement are not new, Christopher said: “We want to give more assurance to people on both sides of the border.”

Gurria called the accord “unquestionably one of the most important achievements of this meeting.”

The two governments also announced a joint crackdown on smugglers who, for fees of about $400 per person, sneak Mexican laborers across the border. Both governments agreed “to intensify . . . actions against criminals who profit from others’ hardships and to invigorate activities to combat trafficking in migrants,” according to an official statement read at the closing session by Mary Ryan, U.S. assistant secretary of state for consular affairs.

The document contains no details on what such efforts will involve, but it records “deep concern” about the April incidents in California. The U.S. is investigating the incidents, and the document says that the Justice Department will review procedures and training in police departments on the American side of the border, focusing on human rights.

Before departing for Washington on Tuesday afternoon, Christopher singled out as “major achievements” of the 13th U.S.-Mexico Binational Commission session comprehensive agreements to jointly curb air and water pollution along the border and new Mexican commitments to crack down on drug-money laundering--with U.S. advice and expertise.

Announced first by Mexican Atty. Gen. Antonio Lozano Gracia at Tuesday’s closing session, Mexico’s pledge to use American technical assistance--including computer programs--and begin forcing its banks to record and report questionable transactions was a response to mounting U.S. concern that Mexico is a money-laundering haven for drug-smuggling cartels.

That concern, voiced by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Thomas A. Constantine during a counter-narcotics conference here two weeks ago, touched off a diplomatic row between Washington and Mexico City.

Christopher told a news conference here Tuesday, though, that Mexico’s willingness to accept help from U.S. government experts showed that “this is one subject on which we have enormous common ground. Money laundering is a problem in the United States. The same thing is true here in Mexico.”

A U.S. State Department report in March described Mexico as “the money-laundering haven of choice for initial placement of U.S. drug cash into the world’s financial system.” Mexico has denied that the problem is that serious, but Zedillo is expected soon to sign a measure that would make money laundering a criminal, rather than civil, offense and increase the maximum penalty from nine to 15 years in jail.

In remarks at the signing ceremony, the Mexican president concluded that the new agreements “intensify the fight against drug trafficking with deeds rather than words, with the strength of cooperation rather than recrimination.”

The meetings, attended by about 300 senior officials from both countries, dealt with 16 categories of bilateral relations that included trade, technology, health, the arts, housing--even better ways to predict the weather.

Several key disputes went unresolved, among them a controversy over the right of trucks from the two countries to enter each other’s border areas. It is among several provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement that have been delayed since the treaty took effect Jan. 1, 1994.

Also unresolved is a pending U.S. Agriculture Department decision to legalize for the first time the import of Mexican avocados; California’s avocado industry is fighting the proposal.

Both Christopher and Gurria readily acknowledged the unsolved problems. The U.S. secretary said this week’s meetings were “part of a continuum. This is not a stopping point. It’s a work in progress.”

Gurria added: “Not everything is solved, but every issue that arises now has a forum in which it will be discussed.”

On U.S.-Mexican relations in general after the meeting, Christopher called them “the most positive relations we have ever had between the United States and Mexico,” and Gurria added: “It is more positive now than it has ever been . . . at a higher level and of better quality.”

Times staff writer Mary Beth Sheridan contributed to this report.