Clinton Urged to Ban Foreigners’ Abductions : Camarena case: Lawyers for Mexican doctor acquitted after being kidnaped to stand trial urge President-elect to issue a permanent order.

Charging that the American government has “lost its moral compass,” lawyers for a Mexican gynecologist who was kidnaped at the behest of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration are urging President-elect Bill Clinton to prevent government agents from ever abducting another foreign national.

“We hope that your Administration will adopt an entirely new approach to this case and a new policy prohibiting the kind of lawless behavior that characterized the prosecution of this case,” lawyers Paul Hoffman and Alan Rubin said in a letter to Clinton that was released Wednesday. “Recognizing that your Administration is faced with enormous challenges, we believe that this issue demands prompt action to demonstrate that our government has respect for the rule of law.”

Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain was abducted in April, 1990, outside his Guadalajara office by DEA-paid agents. He was brought to the United States to stand trial on charges that he took part in the 1985 torture and murder DEA agent Enrique Camarena, but Alvarez was acquitted by U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie and has returned to Mexico.

The letter, which was immediately criticized by prosecutors, was released in Los Angeles as Clinton prepares to meet with Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Hoffman, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said he hopes the letter will prompt Clinton and his aides to focus on the Camarena case and its international implications as they prepare for the sessions with Salinas.

A Clinton spokeswoman, Dee Dee Meyers, said the President-elect would “take a look” at the recommendations before meeting with Salinas on Friday afternoon in Texas. “He’ll make a decision at that time,” she said.

Clinton has previously denounced Alvarez’s kidnaping, but Hoffman and Rubin, who was Alvarez’s criminal defense lawyer, asked the President-elect to go beyond that and agree to sign an executive order that would close the door on government-sponsored kidnapings. The lawyers also asked Clinton to support legislation that would prohibit kidnapings and bar anyone who had been abducted from being tried in American courts.

In addition, they urged the incoming Clinton Administration to compensate Alvarez for the “violation of his rights” and to launch an inquiry into other aspects of the Camarena investigation. They asked Clinton officials to investigate the handling of prosecution documents as well as payments and other benefits given to government informants, some of whom have significant criminal histories.

U.S. Atty. Terree A. Bowers, whose office has won convictions against seven of the eight defendants who were tried in the United States in connection with the Camarena murder, said he was angered by several accusations in the letter. Rubin and Hoffman, for instance, accused the government of failing to promptly turn over information that might have helped clear Alvarez of wrongdoing.

“When we received that information, we immediately turned it over on the next court day,” Bowers responded. “I am angered by these insinuations. We have prosecutors who acted with absolute integrity and professionalism.”

Bowers also called the idea that Alvarez should be compensated “an absolute outrage,” because Alvarez admitted being at the house where Camarena was tortured.

Times staff writer Douglas Jehl contributed to this story.