Cites Report of CIA Wiretaps in Mexico : Tijuana Mayor Cancels Talk With S.D. Council

Tijuana Mayor Rene Trevino Arredondo has canceled a unique joint meeting of the Tijuana and San Diego city councils, which had been scheduled for today, to protest reports that the CIA tapped the phones of Mexican police and government officials.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor announced Trevino’s abrupt cancellation Wednesday during a special council session to choose an appointee for the District 8 seat left vacant by last week’s resignation of Councilman Uvaldo Martinez.

Luis Manuel Serrano, a Tijuana City Hall spokesman, said Wednesday that Trevino decided to cancel the meeting, which was to be held in San Diego, to protest what he called a “violation of Mexico’s sovereignty by the CIA.” It is not known if the U.S. spy agency tapped officials’ phones in Tijuana.

Serrano said that Trevino, whose term expires next week, could not attend the meeting in good conscience because of the allegations, which were made Wednesday in an article in the San Diego Union. However, the spokesman said that Trevino will encourage his successor, Federico Valdes, to attend future meetings “after this furor dies down.” The wiretap allegations have raised considerable anger in Mexico, Serrano said.

O’Connor aide Francisco Herrera said that Trevino had agreed last month to begin quarterly joint sessions to discuss problems common to both cities. The agenda for today’s meeting, which was to have been the first, included a discussion of tourism and trade issues, Herrera said.

Representatives of the Tijuana Chamber of Commerce and the Tijuana Convention & Tourism Bureau were scheduled to address the joint session, as were spokesmen for the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce and the city’s Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The two mayors agreed to alternate the sites of the quarterly meetings during O’Connor’s courtesy visit to Tijuana in October, said Herrera, director of the mayor’s Bi-National Affairs office. Trevino was to have been accompanied by nine Tijuana council members and several business leaders. O’Connor said the council had planned to take the entire Tijuana delegation--25 total--to the Los Angeles Raiders-San Diego Chargers football game after the meeting.

The San Diego Union reported Wednesday that the CIA had conducted the wiretaps as part of a drug investigation stemming from the murder of Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Enrique Camarena. Camarena was murdered near Guadalajara, Mexico, in February, 1985, by Mexican drug traffickers. According to the report, the wiretaps revealed that several Mexican police officers and government officials are involved in drug trafficking.

O’Connor announced the cancellation “with great regret.” She said that Trevino had called her and expressed “grave concerns” over the wiretap allegations.

“He felt it was inappropriate to attend a meeting to celebrate good relations,” O’Connor said. “ . . . They don’t like what’s happening in Washington.”

Herrera, who was responsible for coordinating the joint session, said that it was his impression that Trevino was more concerned than angry over the allegations.

“The impression I got was that he was not angry but simply doing the logical thing given the set of circumstances,” said Herrera.

Herrera said the joint sessions were to be held on a trial basis but that both sides hoped to make them permanent.