The political stakes were clear from the clout of the participants. Included at the Friday White House sitdown were President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, antidrug czar General Barry McCaffrey and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. The issue: whether to certify Mexico as cooperative in the war against drugs.
All week long the President had been bombarded with contradictory signals from his political staff, a chorus of denunciations of Mexico from Congress and warnings of retaliation from the Mexican government should Clinton make the wrong choice. Among the threats were cancellation of Clinton's scheduled April trip to Mexico and...
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