Thornburgh Says Mexico Is Retaliating : Camarena case: The attorney general calls its attempt to extradite a U.S. agent and an informant ‘a mistake.’

Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh on Wednesday accused the Mexican government of trying to retaliate against the United States by seeking to extradite a U.S. drug agent and an informant involved in apprehending a suspect in the murder of another U.S. agent.

“We think it’s a mistake for the government of Mexico not to cooperate in this investigation, not to bring to justice those persons who have engaged in acts or contributed to this dreadful incident,” Thornburgh said. The comment was his strongest so far in the dispute over the investigation of the 1985 torture-slaying of U.S. drug agent Enrique S. Camarena.

The United States “will not let rest” Camarena’s murder “until we have brought to the bar of our justice those persons responsible,” Thornburgh said in responding to questions after a speech at the National Press Club.

Last week, the Mexican government said that it would formally request the extradition of Hector Berrellez, a Los Angeles-based DEA agent, and Antonio Garate Velarde, a Drug Enforcement Administration informant.

The two allegedly plotted the kidnaping of Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain, a Guadalajara gynecologist. Alvarez is accused of administering drugs to Camarena to revive him for further torture by Mexican drug traffickers.

Garate, a former Mexican police officer, said in an April interview that he arranged the abduction of Alvarez in Guadalajara on April 2 and delivered him to three Los Angeles-based DEA agents who were waiting in El Paso.

Jurors in the case of four men accused in Los Angeles of involvement in the murder of Camarena continued deliberations Wednesday. Their trial began July 16. Alvarez is to be tried separately.

Thornburgh said that the United States had made clear its “determination to see this prosecution through and we hope and expect that our friends and neighbors in Mexico will understand our outrage and our determination to see this case through to completion.

“Unfortunately, it would appear that the most recent action that’s contemplated by the government of Mexico is in some way intended to retaliate for some of these efforts,” Thornburgh said.

Thornburgh said he was “obviously distressed by what could lead to a breakdown in what had up to this date been a constructive relationship between Mexican and American authorities.” He noted that since Carlos Salinas de Gortari took office as president of Mexico in December, 1988, “we have seen a vast improvement in relationships between Mexican and American law enforcement authorities.”

“A step backward in that regard is something I think brings dismay to all of us in law enforcement,” Thornburgh said.

Camarena, a veteran DEA agent, was abducted off a Guadalajara street on Feb. 7, 1985. He allegedly was taken to a house owned by Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero and interrogated and tortured for two days. His mutilated body and that of his pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar, were found a month later at a ranch about 60 miles from Guadalajara.

There have been seven indictments handed down by federal grand juries in Los Angeles growing out of the Camarena murder. Thus far, 22 people have been indicted in the United States. Several of those already have been tried and imprisoned in connection with the case in Mexico.