Police in Mexico Reportedly Beat U.S. Drug Agent

Mexican police in Guadalajara arrested and reportedly mistreated a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Wednesday, sources here and in Washington said Thursday.

The agent was identified as Victor Cortez Jr., one of about 30 DEA agents working in Mexico under an agreement with the Mexican government.

In an official statement, the DEA in Washington said that Cortez, “along with a citizen of Mexico,” were detained Wednesday night, interrogated, “allegedly mistreated” and released.

DEA officials would not elaborate on the kind of mistreatment that the two reportedly suffered. But informed sources said that during six hours of captivity, Cortez was subjected to a half-hour of being slapped around, having electric shocks administered with a cattle prod and being suffocated by water forced up his nostrils through straws.

Common Torture Techniques

International and Mexican human rights groups have listed such techniques as forms of torture commonly practiced by police in Mexico.

The incident occurred on the same day that President Reagan and President Miguel de la Madrid of Mexico met in Washington to discuss, among other topics, cooperation in the fight against narcotics trafficking.

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III met Thursday in Washington with his Mexican counterpart, Sergio Garcia Ramirez, to discuss plans for carrying out joint anti-drug operations along the U.S.-Mexican border that the two chiefs of state have agreed upon. At a press conference later, Meese said that Garcia “pledged full cooperation” in investigating the Cortez case.

On the surface, the incident was a grim reminder of the 1985 torture-murders of DEA agent Enrique S. Camarena and an informant, Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala. DEA sources have charged that a theft investigations unit of the Jalisco state judicial police kidnaped both Camarena and Zavala off the streets of Guadalajara and turned them over to major Mexican drug runners. The tortured bodies of Camarena and Zavala were found buried on a ranch near Guadalajara.

Although there have been several arrests in the Camarena-Zavala case, no one has been brought to trial, and key suspects are believed to be still at large.

Vice President George Bush joined Meese at the Washington press conference in formally unveiling Operation Alliance, the name given to the U.S.-Mexican program aimed at halting the flow of illegal drugs and other contraband smuggled across their common frontier.

Administration officials said the $266-million program will involve sophisticated surveillance equipment, aircraft and weapons, creation of a special anti-drug task force of several hundred U.S. law enforcement agents and U.S. military support.

In Mexico City, Mexican government officials confirmed that Cortez was arrested by Jalisco state judicial police in Guadalajara but denied that he was abused.

“Victor Cortez was detained. It was a mistake and he is free,” said Francisco Fonseca, a spokesman for the federal attorney general’s office in Mexico City.

Asked if Cortez was mistreated, Fonseca answered, “Negative.”

According to informed sources, Cortez was freed after DEA colleagues questioned his whereabouts with the federal attorney general’s office in Mexico City. Cortez’s DEA colleagues had become worried when he failed to show up for an appointment within 15 minutes of a given time.

The federal office, upon locating Cortez at a state police station in Guadalajara, dispatched federal policemen to rescue him. Cortez was reportedly in the custody of a theft investigations unit in the Jalisco state judicial police office.

Sources said that Cortez has flown from Mexico to Arizona. DEA officials would only describe his condition as “fit to travel.”

The Mexican citizen taken into custody with Cortez has not been identified, and his whereabouts is unknown. Sources say he was an informant working for Cortez.

Fonseca, the Mexican attorney general’s spokesman, said he did not know the precise reason for Cortez’s detention. He said, however, that when the arrest was made, Cortez was traveling in a car “full of weapons.”

“In any case, this is not our jurisdiction,” he added, suggesting that inquiries be made to the Jalisco state attorney general’s office.

Calls to Guadalajara produced a bureaucratic runaround. In a telephone interview, Jalisco attorney general’s office spokesman Raul Maraboto said he had no knowledge of any arrest of an American agent in Guadalajara and said questions about the case should be put to the federal attorney general’s representative, Maria Rios, also in Guadalajara.

Rios’ secretary said to call Fonseca in Mexico City.

Dan Williams reported from Mexico City and Ronald J. Ostrow from Washington.