Mexico Protests Drug Statements Made on NBC

Mexican diplomats in Washington and Los Angeles criticized NBC on Wednesday for statements about drug problems in Mexico made in news segments following the miniseries “Drug Wars: The Camarena Story.”

The diplomats did not comment on the content of the three-part miniseries itself, which dramatized how corrupt policemen worked with Mexican government officials to kidnap, torture and murder U.S. Drug Enforcement Agent Enrique Camarena in 1985.

Instead, the Mexican diplomats attacked statements they said anchor Tom Brokaw and panelists made during 15-minute interview segments following each episode that compared drug corruption in the Mexican government to the Panamanian government of Manuel Noriega.

“Some of the assertions made by the interviewer, reporter and guests are the product of sheer ignorance, imprecise, unfair, lacking of any evidence and, maybe, in bad faith,” Jose Angel Pescador-Osuna, the Mexican consul general in Los Angeles, said in a prepared statement.

An NBC spokeswoman in New York denied that there were inaccuracies in the reports made during the segments by Brokaw and NBC correspondents. She added that the network had invited Mexican government officials to participate in the news segments but they had refused.

“We are puzzled by the Mexican government’s reaction in light of its repeated refusal to take part in our special reports,” Joe Angotti, senior vice president of news, said in a statement. “We do not accept the charge that there were inaccuracies or inconsistencies in any of our reports.”

The statement added that in all three of the interview segments, it was stated that the Mexican government had made progress in recent years in reducing drug trafficking and government corruption.

The NBC spokeswoman said that the Mexican government had suggested that drug expert Guido Velsasso, a professor at UC San Diego, be invited to participate in the program. Velsasso did appear on the first news segment Sunday night.

Gustavo Gonzalez, legal adviser to the Mexican embassy in Washington, said that Mexican officials did not appear on the program because they were apprehensive that any statements they made could be used by attorneys representing the men charged with Camarena’s murder.

In Los Angeles, Consul General Pescador-Osuna added that although the Mexican government also had “problems” with the miniseries itself, it would reserve comment on the program because “the Mexican government has always been a defender of the freedom of artistic expression.”

“The interpretation of the events can be much more dangerous than the (dramatic) series itself,” Pescador-Osuna said. In the interview segments after the drama, he said, Brokaw and others “talk about the events of 1985 and 1986 as if they were the same as 1990. That’s what bothers us.”

Pescador-Osuna referred to an assertion that he said was made by an NBC correspondent in Sunday’s segment that “Mexico is just like Panama. . . . Drug corruption is deep and pervasive. . . . In almost every part of the country, there is a local Noriega, a commandante , a general, a governor getting rich by dealing with Colombian cartel drug bosses.”

The Mexican diplomat said that this assertion “deeply hurts the Mexican people and institutions that are courageously fighting drugs everyday.”

The NBC spokeswoman said she believed the correspondent’s statement was taken out of context.

Meanwhile, Ralph Lochridge, spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, which cooperated in the making of the miniseries, defended the accuracy of the program. But Lochridge also said, “There has been a great amount of progress (in dealing with trafficking) in the new Administration of Mexico. It’s a breath of fresh air. We’re applauding the positive efforts made by the Mexican government.”