Word: mexicans
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When reports first emerged that Victor Cortez Jr., a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, had been tortured by policemen in Guadalajara, any words of Mexican repentance were drowned out by shouts of resentment. Mexico City's most influential newspaper, Excelsior, ran a cartoon showing two skunks, one labeled "DEA," the other "drug traffickers." An editorial asserted that the very presence of American intelligence-gathering agents created a "stinking sewer." Both the governor and the attorney general of Jalisco state, where the detention had taken place, flatly denied all charges of torture. And the country's Defense Minister, General Juan Arevalo...
Last week, however, the office of Mexican Attorney General Sergio Garcia Ramirez virtually conceded that mistreatment had indeed taken place. It named eleven Jalisco police officers suspected of "abusing authority and inflicting injuries" in the Cortez case. At the same time, though, Mexico sent a sharp note to Washington contending that Cortez had overstepped his authority. Angered by the charge, U.S. officials replied that Cortez had acted in accordance with well-known and accepted DEA practices. They bitterly pointed out that none of the eleven officers had yet been arrested. Above all, they found Mexico's continuing show of defensiveness...
...mishandling of Cortez has already overshadowed all the gestures of goodwill exchanged by President Reagan and Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado in Washington three weeks ago. It has also highlighted the dangers that DEA agents face in Mexico, where police officers often regard their undercover allies from the U.S. as meddlesome intruders. Washington, in turn, views many of its local colleagues as potential enemies who have been corrupted by the very criminals they are supposed to be battling. "It's ! gotten a lot worse down there now," says one U.S. law-enforcement official, "because the agents aren...
...contentious issues were given new fuel by last week's Mexican report. It found fault with the Jalisco police, but also charged irregularities on Cortez's part. The American agent was first stopped on Aug. 13 because the 1986 Ford Cougar he was driving had improper license plates. At Cortez's side, the report claimed, was Antonio Garate Bustamante, a former Guadalajara police officer who had been jailed on charges of extortion but was later cleared. Inside the trunk of the car was a semiautomatic rifle and an UZI submachine gun, both of which are illegal in Mexico. To make...
...countries in which they operate, DEA agents in Mexico work under tight legal constraints. The 30 or so agents, most of them Mexican Americans, are not allowed to make arrests, seize illicit drugs or even question suspects. Though formally attached to the U.S. embassy, they mainly work undercover with paid informers. Much of the time, they are relatively powerless. Says one enforcement officer: "Intelligence is the only game we play down here. For example, some Chicago families have direct links with the Durango Mafia. We listen to the street talk and occasionally we get a report that so many...