Mexico Consulate Speaks Out : Diplomacy: The L.A. office becomes more vigorous in defending nationals in the U.S. Two shooting deaths involving law enforcement bring unusually strong protests.

The doors of the Mexican Consulate near MacArthur Park had barely opened when the brothers of Nicolas Contreras appeared, saying that they sought justice. Days before, Contreras had been shot to death by Los Angeles police officers who said the Mexican national had threatened them with a gun he was firing to welcome the new year.

That explanation did not satisfy Contreras’ brothers. But instead of protesting quietly, they asked the consulate for help.

The consulate was quick to respond. In a rare departure from protocol, Consul General Jose Angel Pescador Osuna sent Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates a formal letter of protest, expressing “indignation” and demanding an investigation into the shooting.

It was the second time in less than a week that Mexican government officials had confronted Los Angeles law enforcement. Another Mexican citizen, Pedro Castaneda Gonzalez, had been killed on New Year’s under similar circumstances at the hands of a sheriff’s deputy. Another letter of complaint went to Sheriff Sherman Block.

The unusual protests are part of what Mexican officials say is a campaign to attract attention to the plight of Mexican nationals in the United States. Spurred by pressure at home to protect Mexicans abroad, the consulate in Los Angeles says that it will take a more active role in monitoring and publicizing cases of alleged police abuse or other violence against Mexican nationals.

“What we are talking about is violation of human rights,” said Martin Torres, consulate press attache. “It has to be fixed. It has to be changed (and) it should be known that we are working to stop these kinds of incidents (which) are beginning to repeat themselves.”

The campaign appears to be an offshoot of similar efforts in the San Diego area aimed at stemming a rising tide of violence along the U.S.-Mexico border. Such efforts received a boost last November when the presidents of Mexico and the United States met in Monterrey, Mexico, and agreed to take steps to stop border violence.

Torres conceded that the border, where five Mexicans have been killed by U.S. law enforcement agents in the last year, has a greater problem than the Los Angeles area, and he added that relations between the Mexican Consulate and local law enforcement are generally good. But by making an issue of the Contreras and Castaneda cases, he said, the consulate hopes to prevent more incidents and remind authorities that consular officials are watching.

Since taking over the consulate early last year, Pescador has promoted the more aggressive stance as part of his government’s foreign policy. In addition to protesting violence, he and other officials have attended local trials of several Mexican nationals, including Ruben Zuno Arce, convicted in the torture-murder of U.S. drug agent Enrique Camarena, and of three San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies accused in a lawsuit of beating five Mexican citizens in Victorville.

The consulate is also encouraging Mexican citizens with similar complaints against police to come forward.

Los Angeles police and sheriff’s officials deny that Mexican nationals are singled out for abusive treatment, and say that the shootings of Contreras and Castaneda were already under investigation without any prompting from the Mexican government. So far, they said, investigators have not turned up evidence of wrongdoing.

“I think it was a matter of jumping before you think,” Sgt. Edward Sznaper, head of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s international liaison unit, said of the consular protest.

Lt. William Hall, who heads the Los Angeles Police Department unit that investigates officer-involved shootings, said the consulate’s action took him by surprise.

“We’ve shot a lot of Mexican nationals over the years and it was unusual to get a letter,” Hall said. “I don’t attach a lot of significance to it. I don’t think there is any basis to it, but if they (Mexican officials) have other information, we want to keep an open mind and avail ourselves of it.”

To that end, police investigators met with Pescador and other consulate officials Wednesday.

With publicity swirling around shootings or beatings in which Mexican nationals are victims, the Mexican government--dismayed by sharp criticism from several U.S.-based human rights organizations--may be hoping for an image-enhancing political plus: shifting the focus from human rights violations in Mexico to similar alleged abuses in the United States.

“It is a way to say it doesn’t only happen in Mexico,” Torres said. “ . . . It is a way to say we are concerned about human rights here (in the United States) too.”

Contreras and Castaneda had been killed after they were discovered shooting guns into the air to mark the New Year--a felony offense that law enforcement officials had been working to discourage.

In the Contreras case, Los Angeles police say they fired four shotgun rounds into Contreras when he pointed a gun at them. Contreras, a 26-year-old wire factory worker, had been shooting his gun into the night sky as he stood on the front stoop of his South-Central home, according to police and his family.

Besides Contreras and the two officers who confronted him, apparently no one saw the shooting. A neighbor and a brother of Contreras who were in their homes at the time say that they did not hear police identify themselves before the shotgun blasts rang out, but police say they clearly identified themselves and ordered Contreras to put down his weapon.

Regardless of what an official investigation ultimately shows, Contreras’ family is not likely to be comforted.

“We want justice,” Jose Alfredo Contreras, 31, said in Spanish as he, another brother and two cousins awaited information at the consulate, a newly refurbished building on 6th Street next to MacArthur Park. “My brother was not a murderer. They did not have to do this to him.”

Hall said evidence and interviews with the officers and people from the neighborhood have supported the police description of events.

In the other case attracting consular attention, Castaneda and two companions were saluting the New Year shortly after midnight by firing a revolver into the air. According to sheriff’s spokesmen, a deputy was dispatched to investigate reports of gunfire, saw the three men and ordered Castaneda, 28, to drop the gun.

The deputy said he saw Castaneda turn toward him, pointing the gun. The deputy fired five times. Castaneda died at the scene.

One of Castaneda’s companions, Luis Alberto Velasco, told consulate officials and The Times that Castaneda had already dropped the gun when the deputy opened fire. Authorities deny that. The case remains under investigation.

Sznaper said the Mexican Consulate, in protesting the shootings, acted hastily and with little foundation.

“Every story has at least two sides,” Sznaper said. “To go to the family and get their side, and then go with it like it’s the gospel truth, is ludicrous.”

Torres countered, however, that without consular participation, the family’s side might not be given full weight.