Mexican Held as Witness to Agent Slaying May Be Freed

A commander of the Mexican internal security agency jailed as a witness in the kidnap-slaying of American drug agent Enrique S. Camarena likely will be freed by early next week, his lawyer said Thursday.

Mario Martinez Herrera, a commandante of the Mexican General Directorate of Investigations and National Security, appeared briefly in U.S. District Court in San Diego amid tight security. Martinez’s attorney has insisted he knows nothing about the Camarena killing.

But a scheduled hearing on Martinez’s continuing detention at the Metropolitan Correctional Center was postponed at the request of James Wilson, a Justice Department attorney from Washington who will question Martinez today before a federal grand jury probing Camarena’s death.

Wilson met for 20 minutes with attorney Michael P. Murray, who represents the Mexican officer, and U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving in a closed-door session. The transcript of the proceedings was sealed, and neither lawyer would comment afterward on the discussions.

Murray, however, said the open hearing was delayed until early next week “so we can complete certain discussions in order to expedite the resolution of (Martinez’s) material witness status.”

Murray said prosecutors needed the time, among other reasons, to examine hair, blood, fingerprint and voice samples that Martinez believes will clear him of any implication in the case. Murray said Martinez could be freed as early as tonight but said it was more likely he would be allowed to leave the United States sometime Monday.

Though it has been reported that Martinez’s voice is heard on a tape recording obtained by U.S. investigators of Camarena’s torture last year in Guadalajara, Murray said Martinez insists he was not present for the Drug Enforcement Administration agent’s torture and had nothing to do with his killing.

“He could not possibly have his voice on any tape, because he was not there,” Murray said at an impromptu press conference outside the federal courthouse. “He was performing duties for his agency at that time in an entirely different state about as far away from Jalisco and Guadalajara as San Diego is from Mexico City.”

Murray said Martinez currently is assigned to Mexico City and previously was in Nuevo Laredo, near the Texas border. He declined, however, to state where Martinez says he was in February, 1985, when Camarena and his pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar, were kidnaped in Guadalajara. Their bodies were found a month later.

Mexican authorities have charged two notorious Mexican drug traffickers with Camarena’s murder, and numerous Mexican police officials--including a veteran officer of Martinez’s agency--also have been charged in connection with the kidnap and slaying.

The DEA arrested Martinez, 37, Monday evening after he dined with a friend from Tijuana, his hometown, at a Chula Vista restaurant. Murray said Martinez entered the country Monday under an American visa to shop at a discount store in Chula Vista.

He confirmed that the DEA seized a briefcase containing records from Martinez but denied reports that the documents linked Martinez to drug traffickers.

Extra deputy marshals were posted inside and outside the courtroom where Martinez--a short, muscular man with thinning black hair--briefly appeared Thursday. Those attending the hearing had to pass through two metal detectors.

U.S. Marshal James Laffoon said the tight security stemmed from a report Thursday in The San Diego Union quoting unnamed Mexican law enforcement officials as saying a “death contract” had been issued for Martinez.

Laffoon said the U.S. Marshals Service had no independent information about a potential threat. “We’re just not ones to take long chances,” he said.

Martinez discounted the report as groundless rumor, Murray said.