Drug Agent’s Murder Called ‘Terrorist Act’

WASHINGTON — The murder of American drug agent Enrique Camarena Salazar was “a terrorist act” by corrupt Mexican police, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration said today.

“The abduction of Special Agent Camarena was a terrorist act,” Acting Administrator John Lawn told reporters after testifying before a House Appropriations subcommittee.

“The abduction . . . was accomplished by factors in Mexican police agencies who had been corrupted by drug traffickers,” he said. “I believe that if that corrupting factor were not there among the members of the enforcement community in Mexico, Special Agent Camarena would be in San Diego today.”

Little Optimism

Lawn said he has read the Mexican attorney general’s initial report about the abduction and murder of Camarena, whose body was found early this month, but he was not optimistic that any Mexican citizens will be sent to the United States to stand trial.

“There has not been an individual extradited from Mexico in 90 years,” Lawn said.

Lawn told the House panel that rather than scaring the drug agency into backing off in Mexico, as Camarena’s murderers had hoped, the agent’s death has “strengthened the resolve of narcotics control agencies on both sides of the border. These terrorist acts will not affect the role of the Drug Enforcement Administration because we will not be intimidated.”

Situation Deteriorating

Lawn also told the subcommittee that Mexico’s status as a “model country” in the fight against drugs has deteriorated in the last 18 months. He said there has been “a downfall, a decay” in Mexico’s drug-fighting program.

Asked by reporters why that was, Lawn blamed “the economic conditions in Mexico and the corruption factor in Mexico.” He said the amount of Mexican marijuana and brown heroin coming into the United States has increased recently.

Lawn refused to endorse legislation to block foreign aid to drug-producing countries, such as Bolivia, Peru and Jamaica, until those nations act more aggressively to stop the production and flow of drugs.

“In the short term, we certainly would get the message to a given country” by cutting off their aid, he said. But a blanket cutoff of foreign aid in the long run could have a “negative impact,” he added.