Meese Sees Drug Link in Protests

Atty Gen. Edwin Meese III charged Saturday that drug traffickers “apparently” orchestrated violent demonstrations outside the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa in which at least two Hondurans died Thursday.

“I think it is a typical example . . . of how narcotics trafficking is clearly a poison for any society and can result in the kind of social upheaval which appears to be taking place there,” Meese told an airport press conference.

Meese made the comment when asked if he had any second thoughts about the apprehension on fugitive charges by U.S. marshals Tuesday of Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, a Honduran drug kingpin. Matta’s seizure by Honduran police and expulsion to the United States by way of the Dominican Republic was the focus of the protests in Tegucigalpa.

“Our interests are satisfied as far as as Matta is concerned. He is back in Marion (federal prison in Illinois),” Meese later told reporters flying with him to Lima, Peru, the fourth stop on a weeklong South American mission.

Matta is regarded as one of the world’s major cocaine traffickers and is a suspect in the 1985 slaying in Mexico of U.S. drug agent Enrique S. Camarena.

Meese said that he had only “limited facts” on the anti-American demonstrations in Honduras and that his comments were based largely on news accounts.

Meese, describing talks he had Saturday with President Leon Febres Cordero, praised the latter’s moves to strengthen police efforts to eradicate production in Ecuador of coca, the raw crop for cocaine.