Extradition From Mexico: It’s Tricky Going : Nation Historically Reluctant to Turn Over Citizens for Prosecution Despite Treaty

In the hours following Ramon Salcido’s arrest in rural Mexico, U.S. authorities launched a difficult dance of diplomacy aimed at extraditing him to stand charges of murdering seven people in California.

“We’re treading on eggs right now,” one U.S. official said of negotiations to obtain the return of Salcido, a Mexican citizen.

Historically, Mexico has been reluctant to hand over its citizens for prosecution, despite a 1978 U.S.-Mexico extradition treaty.

“It’s so difficult to use that treaty that it’s kind of up to the good will of the Mexican government as to whether we ever get him back,” said the official, who asked not to be identified.

Some authorities were hopeful that Salcido might be quickly returned to the United States through informal diplomatic channels, circumventing what could be months of hearings required for formal extradition.

Nonetheless, the California attorney general’s office announced Wednesday that it would be dispatching an official extradition request to the U.S. Justice Department, to be forwarded to the Mexican government.

“At the minute, I’m optimistic,” said Nelson Kempsky, chief deputy attorney general, citing a new administration in Mexico that may be more open to extradition requests and the Mexican government’s help this week in Salcido’s arrest.

“All the signs we are getting from the Mexican authorities are of great cooperation, and we are hopeful that they will carry on right into the extradition process,” Kempsky said.

At the same time, Justice Department officials dispatched by overnight mail to Mexico City a packet of documents that they hope will convince authorities there that Salcido, although a Mexican national, obtained permanent residency in the United States and should thus be treated as a U.S. citizen.

“I think the next 48 hours will tell,” said Joseph P. Russoniello, U.S. attorney in San Francisco.

“Very often,” he said, Mexican authorities simply turn over criminal suspects at the U.S. border without normal extradition proceedings.

On Jan. 24, 1986, for example, a key suspect in the murder of U.S. drug agent Enrique Camarena was taken into custody by six masked men in San Felipe. The suspect was blindfolded, thrust into the back of a car and handed over to U.S. agents at the California border.

U.S. officials have since admitted paying four former Mexican police officials $32,000 to apprehend the man, Rene Verdugo Urquidez, who was convicted in Los Angeles federal court last year for his role in the Camarena case. The Mexican government subsequently lodged a protest over his arrest.

State Department officials said extradition of Mexican nationals to the United States is rare, despite the treaty between the two countries, because of a provision in the Mexican Criminal Code that gives Mexican courts jurisdiction over crimes committed by Mexican nationals, even when they occur outside Mexico.

“In the eyes of Mexican law, he would be a Mexican citizen, and therefore under the terms of the treaty, our hands are tied in the sense that Mexican law prohibits the extradition of a Mexican national,” said a State Department official who asked not to be identified.

If the Mexican government were to deny extradition, he said, U.S. officials would at least seek to have him tried in Mexican courts on murder charges, based on written evidence supplied by U.S. prosecutors and whatever additional witnesses a court there would want to call.

However, the State Department would probably stop short of officially requesting that Salcido simply be deported to the United States, the spokesman said, despite the U.S. attorney’s assertion that such requests are routinely lodged on an informal basis.

Carlos Pujalte, legal adviser to the Mexican Embassy in Washington, said that while Mexican law permits authorities there to try citizens for foreign crimes, the law does not require that they do so.

“In this case, the Mexican court has to determine if they want to try the case or if they could defer jurisdiction to the U.S. court that is requesting this,” he said. “I could say that some Mexican courts would be reluctant to defer jurisdiction, but that’s up to the Mexican judge.”

Though the treaty technically allows for the extradition of Mexican nationals from Mexico, U.S. officials could not recall such an instance.

Salcido, a native of Mexico and still a Mexican national, was granted permanent residence on Jan. 25, 1986, in San Ysidro, after marrying an American citizen, according to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Russoniello said Salcido said in his application that he had determined to reside permanently in the United States. Authorities here, he said, will argue that the application is evidence that Salcido should be tried in California.