U.S. Retreats on Charges Against Mexico Official

The Treasury Department, seeking to quell a growing furor, Wednesday substantially toned down a charge by U.S. Customs Commissioner William von Raab that the governor of a Mexican border state owns four ranches where marijuana and opium poppies are grown.

The department said in a statement that “no information exists that the governor of Sonora, Rodolfo Felix Valdez, has any knowledge of the growth of these plants on these ranches.”

Worded Carefully

The Mexican governor is not known to own rural property in Sonora, but the carefully worded statement left open the possibility that Valdez owns the ranches but is unaware of the presence of marijuana and opium poppies.

Department spokesman Charles Powers declined to answer any questions about the information on which Von Raab based his charges, who prepared the statement or whether Von Raab faces disciplinary action.

However, it was learned that Von Raab, whose agency is an arm of the Treasury Department, participated in the drafting of the statement.

Before the statement was released, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City disclosed that U.S. diplomats had apologized to Valdez on May 14, the day after Von Raab made his charges against the governor and other sweeping accusations of corruption in Mexico at a Senate hearing.

John Gavin, the outgoing U.S. ambassador, called Valdez to “express his dismay” at the charges, according to an embassy spokesman.

And, in a statement cleared by the State Department, U.S. consular official Christian Kennedy visited Valdez and told him “there is no information in our possession that gives any sustenance in any form to the allegations” made against him.

The Sonoran governor, although appreciative of the ambassador’s call and the consular visit, was holding out for an admission on the part of Von Raab that he was mistaken.

“It’s up to the U.S. government to rectify the error,” the governor’s spokesman, Fortino Leon, said in a telephone interview before the Treasury Department statement was released.

Diplomatic Flare-up

The Senate testimony by Von Raab and Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams--who also leveled harsh charges of corruption--ignited a diplomatic flare-up between Washington and Mexico City. The government of Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid called the charges “slander,” demanded an explanation from the State Department and briefly recalled Mexico’s ambassador from Washington.

In response to the Mexican protest, Secretary of State George P. Shultz wrote a letter to the Mexican Foreign Ministry saying that the United States was “pleased” with progress being made in combatting drug traffic. Last week, Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III telephoned Mexican Atty. Gen. Sergio Garcia Ramirez to insist that the hearings did not reflect Administration attitudes toward Mexico.

And in a television interview Sunday, Meese said: “One of the things that particularly disturbed me about the reckless charges that were made by some people in Congress and by one of the unfortunate people in the Customs Service was that they implied that the whole government of Mexico was in league with drug traffickers. That simply isn’t so. . . . “

Meese, Garcia Met

In April, Meese met with Garcia in the Mexican resort town of Cancun to discuss the problem of increasing drug traffic from Mexico to the United States. Von Raab, furious at what he regards as the lack of cooperation from Mexican officials in fighting the enormous growth of drug trafficking, boycotted the meeting, an aide said.

The Treasury statement, while backtracking on charges about Valdez’s involvement in drug production in Sonora, said that the Customs Service “does have information that narcotics are grown on ranches and farms in the state of Sonora.”

It added that “the initiative between the attorneys general of Mexico and the United States is the proper vehicle for the resolution of these concerns.”

Valdez, who was elected governor last year, is an engineer by training and has worked at various government posts in Mexico City for the last 40 years, including a stint as minister of communication and transport.

Until the Von Raab comments, his name had never been mentioned in connection with narcotics traffic. Public records do not show that he owns rural property in Sonora.

There was some speculation here and in Washington that Von Raab may have confused Sonora with Sinaloa, whose governor is sometimes linked in the Mexican press with drug trafficking.

Paul Houston reported from Washington and Dan Williams from Mexico City.