Mexico Sends Diplomatic Note to U.S. Asking Details on Suspect’s Abduction : Drug war: The alleged kidnap victim has been charged in the death of American DEA agent Camarena.

Mexico’s embassy submitted “a very strong diplomatic note” Wednesday to the State Department requesting information about the “possible kidnaping and illegal transfer” to the United States from Guadalajara of a doctor indicted in the 1985 killing of an American drug agent.

The note was relayed as an official in the Mexican attorney general’s office said he believes that an agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency took part in the “violent kidnaping” of Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain on April 2.

The alleged kidnaping of Alvarez, who faces trial in Los Angeles next month for the torture and killing of DEA agent Enrique S. Camarena in Guadalajara in February, 1985, threatens to halt cooperation between U.S. and Mexican agencies fighting drug trafficking, said the official, who requested anonymity.

In announcing the diplomatic note, the embassy also disclosed that Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has ordered an investigation of the circumstances in which Alvarez was brought to the El Paso airport and arrested by DEA agents there April 3. The embassy said the investigation has been opened.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh, who was scheduled to meet with Mexican Atty. Gen. Enrique Alvarez del Castillo late Wednesday in the Pacific Coast resort of Ixtapa, where both are attending a pan-American conference on combatting drug trafficking, asked Tuesday for a full report from the DEA on the Alvarez incident.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the allegation of DEA participation in the abduction, saying it would be “premature” until the DEA report is completed and in Thornburgh’s hands.

An agency spokesman said he could not comment because Alvarez is involved in “a pending prosecution.”

However, before Thornburgh called for the inquiry, David Runkel, his chief spokesman, said that no U.S. agents had crossed into Mexico to take part in apprehending Alvarez.

The official in Alvarez del Castillo’s office, speaking by telephone from Ixtapa, indicated that the belief that DEA participation in the alleged kidnaping was based on statements by Alvarez’s wife and his secretary.

He said the two women gave detailed descriptions of “three or four” men who took Alvarez away and that “a tall, foreign-looking man” was among them.

It could not be learned whether Mexican officials have other evidence to suggest DEA participation.

Police have made drawings of the alleged abductors, the official said.

He said Alvarez was driven from Guadalajara to Leon, Guanajuato, where on April 3 he was put aboard a small plane and flown to El Paso. There he was arrested by Los Angeles-based DEA agents at the airport.

Mexican officials said that U.S. officials have told them the arrest was a renegade operation by the Los Angeles DEA office, acting without authority from Washington. They assert that as much as $50,000 each was offered to those who performed the abduction.

“How is it possible that Washington didn’t know?” the Mexican official asked. “What would happen if (Mexico’s top drug official Javier) Coello Trejo launched an operation in the United States without consulting the (Mexican) attorney general?

“This was totally illegal, as if we took $50,000 and went after a person in the United States and kidnaped him,” he said.

“We want DEA to tell us who participated,” the official in Alvarez del Castillo’s office said. “The relationship of DEA and the (Mexican) attorney general’s office is at risk if we do not get satisfactory answers.”

He indicated that his government could force DEA agents registered in Mexico to leave the country. “Either we rectify how they work here, or they go,” he said.

The source, who works closely with Alvarez del Castillo, said the Mexican government would seek to prosecute any U.S. agent involved in Alvarez’s detention on charges of kidnaping, conspiracy and illegal possession of weapons.

“This is an affront to the nation,” he said. “We have proven that there was a violent kidnaping. . . There was an international violation of human rights. It was totally illegal.”

Alvarez, 42, a gynecologist, is one of 19 Mexicans who have been indicted in Los Angeles in the Camarena case.

Drug traffickers captured Camarena outside the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara and tortured him for information on DEA activities and knowledge of alleged corruption in Mexican law enforcement. Alvarez is accused of having observed the torture and administering drugs to revive Camarena for further questioning.

Ostrow reported from Washington and Miller from Mexico City.