Mexico Protests U.S. Crackdown on Border : Washington May Ease Searches; Drug Agency Complains Its Investigation Is Being Hampered

Mexico formally expressed “deep concern” to the United States on Thursday over stepped-up border searches for a kidnaped U.S. drug agent, and frustrated U.S. drug enforcement officials complained that a court in Guadalajara is hampering their investigation.

Mexican Ambassador Jorge Espinosa met at the State Department with Deputy Secretary of State Kenneth W. Dam and protested that the border crackdown is “inconsistent with the spirit of friendship and understanding.”

U.S. officials indicated that the thorough searches of Mexican-registered cars crossing the border may be relaxed soon, probably in an announcement by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico John Gavin, who is in Washington for consultations.

DEA Agent’s Disappearance

The searches, which are causing long delays at border crossing points, were instituted last week, mainly in an effort to turn up clues in the Feb. 7 disappearance in Guadalajara of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique S. Camarena. But U.S. officials acknowledge privately that the step also was designed to put pressure on Mexican authorities to vigorously investigate the kidnaping.

An announcement of steps “to make sure the flow of automobile traffic (over the border) is maintained” is expected in the next few days, according to Alan C. Nelson, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

At the same time, however, DEA officials expressed extreme frustration over a Mexican federal court’s issuing of an amparo on behalf of suspected drug traffickers in Guadalajara. An amparo, which means to shelter or protect, is a legal writ issued to protect people who claim they are being harassed by police.

The suspects’ claim of amparo, which U.S. officials familiar with the case said has blocked the questioning of 10 to 12 suspects, has so stymied DEA investigators that the agency took the highly unusual step of summoning home Edward Heath, its top official in Mexico.

Earlier in the investigation, Atty. Gen. William French Smith cabled his counterpart in Mexico to protest the response of Mexican officials to Camarena’s abduction. In addition, President Reagan has written to Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid to express concern.

State Department spokesman Edward Djerejian on Thursday turned aside questions of whether Gavin, who is also discussing the safety of Americans in Mexico, had recommended that Americans be warned not to travel in Mexico. “Those are internal U.S. deliberations which I can’t be drawn into,” he said.

Espinosa’s complaint, which Djerejian said “will be given close attention by us,” asserted that border searches “cause unnecessary irritation for the population of bordering cities in both countries and do not resolve the problem in question.” The Mexican note also complained that the searches were instituted without consulting the Mexican government.

In Mexico City, Foreign Ministry spokesman Augustin Gutierrez said Mexico’s note was not a formal protest note, and he characterized Espinosa’s meeting with Dam as “constructive and advantageous.”

DEA spokesmen have said the border searches are being conducted on the chance that Camarena’s abductors will try to cross the border into the United States--possibly sneaking him across with them--and to help thwart a purported plot by Colombian drug traffickers to kidnap DEA Administrator Francis M. (Bud) Mullen Jr. or another high agency official.

Complaints From Both Sides

Both the Mexican government and U.S. border cities have complained that the searches have created massive traffic jams at border checkpoints and devastated U.S. businesses dependent on Mexican customers.

But Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), a former San Diego mayor, said federal authorities were “right in attempting to squeeze Mexican officialdom, who, if some information is to be believed, have been derelict, . . . complicit.”

“A number of innocent people unfortunately get squeezed,” Wilson said. “But the pressure has to be applied in a way that will be effective because this is the type of thing the United States cannot tolerate.”

However, several members of the Congressional Border Caucus urged Reagan to halt the searches immediately. “In light of the present serious economic conditions along the U.S.-Mexico border, any reduction in commerce causes serious problems,” the caucus chairman, Rep. Ronald D. Coleman (D-Tex.), said.

California Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) said in an interview that the Tijuana Chamber of Commerce had voted to ask the city’s residents to boycott U.S. businesses. Trade from Mexico, he added, accounts for 26% of San Diego retail sales.

Businessmen in both Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez were urging Mexicans not to cross into the United States and asked them to shop in Mexico instead. However, they insisted that the radio and television ads and fliers they were sponsoring were not an effort to encourage a boycott of U.S. business but were intended to help keep the border clear for U.S. tourists.

The fliers being distributed in Ciudad Juarez call for Mexicans to “defend your dignity. Do not go to El Paso. You do not deserve to be treated like a delinquent by North American authorities.”

The fliers are signed by Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, along with a number of unions and business groups. The effort is dubbed “Operation Respect.”

Pablo Gutierrez Barron, president of the Tijuana National Chamber of Commerce, said sales have been down in tourist-related businesses in Tijuana by about 60% since the weekend.

Times reporter Marjorie Miller in San Diego contributed to this story.