Mexican President Blasts Abduction of Drug Suspect

Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari charged Monday that the apparent abduction of a Guadalajara physician to Los Angeles to face drug-related charges threatens the war on drugs, telling a gathering of newspaper publishers here that the United States cannot eliminate “one illegality with another illegality.”

Salinas told a luncheon at the 104th annual convention of the American Newspaper Publishers Assn.--meeting this week in Century City--that the apparent role of U.S. drug agents in the reported kidnaping April 3 of Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain undermines efforts to stop the flow of narcotics from Latin America.

“The battle against narcotics traffickers requires unprecedented international cooperation,” Salinas said, delivering his remarks in Spanish.

“But that cooperation, in order to be effective and real, has to be accomplished with the strictest international respect and no unilateral actions against the law and rights of other nations. It is not with abritrary acts by the pursuers that we are going to combat the illegality of the narcotics traffickers.

“This runs the risk of creating illegal habits among those who have the obligation of defending the law and could create a problem much larger than the one we are trying to combat.”

The speech came during a hectic schedule for the Mexican president at the Century Plaza Hotel.

Later in the day, he presided over a ceremony in which Mexico, for the first time, agreed to extend medical benefits to the families of Mexican citizens working outside of the country. Under the historic agreement, eligible members of the United Farm Workers Union of America would pay between $160 and $200 a year for comprehensive health care for immediate family members back in Mexico.

Salinas also met separately with Mexican-American businessmen and Chicano activists before returning to Mexico City late in the day.

The role of agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in the Alvarez affair has created an uproar in Mexico, where government officials claimed the United States violated Mexican sovereignty and interests.

Mexican authorities have charged that DEA agents offered as much as $100,000 for the abduction of Alvarez, who U.S. authorities believe was present during the torture of slain DEA agent Enrique Camarena in 1985. Mexican authorities believe Alvarez was forcibly removed from his home in Guadalajara and flown to El Paso, Tex., where he was arrested by U.S. officials.

Alvarez is now in Los Angeles, facing drug-related charges in connection with Camarena’s death.

A Los Angeles federal judge has asked U.S. officials to explain Alvarez’s arrest.

Last Friday, the chief spokesman for U.S. Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh said he could not foresee any circumstances under which Alvarez might be returned to Mexico.

In his speech, Salinas said Mexico is doing its share to combat the trafficking of illegal drugs.

“The street value of the 43 tons of pure cocaine that we have seized during the (last) 16 months . . . is equivalent to the total amount of our foreign debt,” Salinas said.

While the publishers politely applauded Salinas’ remarks, the president and Cesar Chavez, head of the UFW, were showered with shouts of “Viva Mexico” and rhythmic handclapping from more than 100 local activists and UFW members as they took part in a ceremony extending the medical benefits.

Chavez said Salinas was the first Mexican president in nearly three decades to understand the UFW’s desire to help families left behind by workers who come to the United States.

“It has not been possible for the union to protect members’ families in Mexico with the union’s medical plan here,” the labor leader said. “Our joint efforts began a creative type of binational pact which gives concrete expression to the solidarity and brotherhood of the Mexican people here and in Mexico.”

Chavez claimed that as many as 100,000 UFW members were covered by the agreement, under which the union would pay their health premiums to the Mexican Institute for Social Security.

But not all Mexican politicians agreed with Chavez’s assessment.

Mexican opposition leader Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, who was winding up a three-day visit to Los Angeles on Monday, told supporters in Chinatown that the agreement would have “little impact,” saying as few as 15,000 agriculture workers might be covered by the pact.

“It’s just not enough,” said Cardenas, who pointed out that as many as 2 million Mexican workers--illegally or otherwise--are in California.

Many of Cardenas’ supporters in Los Angeles urged Chavez not to appear with Salinas, reiterating allegations that Salinas’ party, known as PRI, stole the 1988 presidential election from Cardenas, the son of a revered former president.