U.S. Protests to Mexico on Drug Agent Mistreatment

The Reagan Administration strongly protested Friday what it called “the unprovoked and totally unjustified detention and torture” of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, who was beaten and shocked with a cattle prod during interrogation by Mexican state police.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes said that a formal note of protest over the treatment of DEA agent Victor Cortez Jr. is being delivered to the Mexican government.

Administration officials learned of the incident Thursday morning as Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid concluded a three-day official visit here that was highlighted by his pledge to vigorously pursue drug traffickers and crack down on drug corruption in his country.

News of the Wednesday night beating, which took place in Guadalajara, stunned U.S. officials, who had hoped that the warm reception President Reagan gave De la Madrid would signal a dramatic turnaround in U.S.-Mexican relations. Ties between the two countries have been strained since the kidnaping and murder of another American drug enforcement agent early last year in Guadalajara, capital of Jalisco state.

With the Mexican president still in town, top officials treated initial reports of this latest incident with great care, charging that the Jalisco state police had “allegedly mistreated” Cortez.

But on Friday, after De la Madrid had flown home, Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III told NBC’s “Today” show that there was “no question that our agent was badly treated and we’re not going to stand for this kind of conduct.”

In Guadalajara, meanwhile, Mexican judicial authorities insisted Friday that Cortez was not tortured while under detention on Wednesday.

Jaime Ramirez Gil, the Jalisco state attorney general, told local newspapers that police under his jurisdiction held Cortez for three hours and that he was released unharmed. U.S. officials in Mexico and Washington say Cortez was in captivity for up to eight hours and that he was tortured.

Well-to-Do Neighborhood

Raul Maraboto, spokesman for the Jaliso attorney general, said police arrested Cortez and a companion at the corner of Francisco Gamboa and Mexicalizingo streets in the well-to-do Juarez neighborhood of Guadalajara. Police have identified Cortez’ companion as Antonio Garate Bustamante, a former Guadalajara policeman.

Maraboto said police arrested the men in response to calls from several neighborhood residents who “were alarmed” by the presence of two “suspicious-looking” men in a car parked alongside the road.

“It’s a calm neighborhood and people worry,” Maraboto said.

However, Atty. Gen. Ramirez Gil later told the Mexico City newspaper La Jornada that the pair was picked up by a routine patrol that noticed the men sitting in a parked car. U.S. officials in Mexico City and here say they presume that the police were following Cortez.

In Mexico City, Manuel Alonso, spokesman for President De La Madrid, said that the nation’s attorney general, Sergio Garcia Ramirez, has sent a team to Guadalajara to investigate the Cortez affair. Alonso also said that the government had not yet received the formal U.S. protest in the case.

Accused of ‘Vigilantism’

In Washington, a statement released by the White House called the police action against Cortez and his companion “vigilantism” and said that it “causes serious harm to the relationship necessary for our two countries to be able to combat drug trafficking and production.” Washington on Thursday described the companion as an informant of the DEA officer.

When a reporter observed that the word “vigilantism” is not normally associated with police action, spokesman Speakes, a native of Mississippi, responded, “I think you need to review your civil rights history in the South to see if that word wasn’t used many times in the South.

“Vigilantism is taking an individual and torturing him, singling out an individual,” he said. “Police taking matters into their own hands like that certainly can be called vigilantism.”

At the same time, the White House statement was careful to distinguish between federal and local authorities in Mexico, pointing out “with satisfaction” that Atty. Gen. Garcia had ordered a full investigation of the incident. “We expect that when the full facts are known, appropriate steps will be taken against those who are responsible,” the statement said.

A State Department official, speaking on the condition he not be identified, insisted that the Administration’s confidence in De la Madrid and Garcia was unshaken, but that the beating of Cortez by state police in Guadalajara “underscores the problem we’re up against.”

Lucrative Narcotics Business

Narcotics traffic is such a lucrative business in Mexico, the official said, that drug dealers have permeated virtually all levels of society, buying their way with impunity into local law enforcement operations. Meese pointed out that many police officers, prosecutors and judges have been removed from office and charged in drug-related cases.

The unanswered question is whether De la Madrid will be able to muster the political muscle necessary to counter the lucrative drug industry on the local level. “Nobody on either side (of the U.S.-Mexican border) is under any illusions about the wealth or viciousness of the opposition,” said an Administration official, adding that Reagan and De la Madrid recognize they are dealing with “very, very rich murderers.”

Moreover, while the Administration can fire off a stiff note of protest to the Mexican government, that government has limited influence on local jurisdictions. “It’s a federal system, just like ours,” a White House official said, speaking on the condition he not be identified. “We don’thave diplomatic relations with Jalisco.”

The White House statement said the Cortez incident is “particularly unfortunate” because it occurred during the otherwise successful visit here of De La Madrid. The statement also said that Cortez was released only after the office of Atty. Gen. Garcia interceded at the request of the United States.

A White House official described Garcia as “upset” by the sequence of events and said that he immediately promised a full investigation.

Outrage of an Irate Citizen

The juxtaposition of the crude beating of Cortez and the red carpet treatment accorded to De la Madrid undercut Administration efforts to paper over differences between the two governments. A State Department official told a reporter that he had just gotten off the phone with an irate citizen, who called to register his outrage that the Mexican president was having coffee with President Reagan at the same time that an employee of the U.S. government was being beaten by Mexican authorities.

Cortez, 34, was one of about 30 DEA agents working in Mexico under an agreement with the Mexican government. He identified himself as a U.S. agent when he was arrested, the White House said. After his release, Cortez was flown to Tucson, where he underwent a medical examination Friday.

A reporter in Guadalajara on Friday visited the street corner where Cortez and his companion were reportedly picked up. A person who works in the area daily said he witnessed the arrests.

He said that at mid-afternoon on Wednesday, two men in a Mercury Cougar, presumably Cortez and Garate, pulled up in front of the Bolerama Tapatio bowling lanes on Gamboa Street.

Immediately afterward, an unmarked car and a pickup truck arrived carrying men dressed in civilian clothes and armed with pistols. The witness, who asked not to be identified, said he counted nine men disembark from the truck and the unmarked car.

Two Men in a Cougar

The two men in the Cougar also got out and were searched by some of the armed men. The witness said that the plainclothesmen opened the trunk of the Cougar and inside found a weapon that appeared to be a submachine gun. One of the arrested men was taken away in the Cougar, the other in the plainclothesmen’s unmarked car. There was no violence at the moment of arrest, the witness said.

Two neighbors living in houses with a view of the Bolerama curbside said they knew nothing of the incident and said they had not called police to report anyone parked across from their homes.

“How could we think there was anything suspicious even if we saw two men in a car?” asked one. “That’s a bowling alley. People come and go all the time.”

Two other nearby houses were empty Friday, while residents of a fifth refused to speak to the reporter.

Eleanor Clift reported from Washington and Dan Williams from Guadalajara.