Reputed Deal for Lawmaker’s Vote on NAFTA Sparks Furor in Mexico : Politics: Representative says top Mexican official promised to extradite rape suspect in exchange for his nod on trade pact.

A heated controversy has arisen here regarding the Mexican government’s purported vow to extradite a suspected rapist to the United States in exchange for a Florida lawmaker’s “yes” vote on the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Apart from possibly violating Mexican law, critics here say, the reported agreement between Mexican Atty. Gen. Jorge Carpizo MacGregor and U.S. Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.) demonstrates the extremes to which the administration of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari went to help secure passage of the pact. NAFTA is a cornerstone of Salinas’ economic reforms.

Salinas himself pledged that extradition would be sought, according to Shaw, during a telephone conversation Wednesday with Lee Iacocca, the former automotive executive recruited by President Clinton as a trade-pact booster.

That same day--the day of the successful NAFTA vote in the U.S. House of Representatives--Carpizo made a similar pledge by phone to Shaw, the congressman said.

“The president was well-aware of this case when Lee Iacocca brought it to his attention,” said Shaw, who explained that he was present as Iacocca chatted with Salinas from the congressman’s Washington desk.

Mexico has never extradited one of its citizens to the United States, and word of the promises to Shaw has rankled sensitive nationalist sentiments here, particularly because Shaw has explicitly linked the pledge to the NAFTA vote.

“If this man (the suspect) committed the crimes that are alleged, he should be punished--but according to Mexican law,” Ricardo Valero, an opposition congressman, said Friday.

Under Mexico’s statutes, the suspect could be tried here for the crime based on sworn affidavits and other evidence submitted by U.S. authorities. Mexican officials had earlier indicated in writing that the case would be handled this way but apparently later reversed that decision as the NAFTA vote approached.

“This shows the government was willing to sell our national sovereignty just to get this treaty passed,” said Matilde Arteaga, a union organizer who was active in the anti-NAFTA movement.

Many in Mexico are still fuming about the U.S.-arranged abductions of two suspects in the 1985 murder of a U.S. drug enforcement agent in Guadalajara. The fates of Mexican citizens on U.S. death rows are also followed closely in Mexico, where there is no capital punishment.

The suspect in the rape case, Serapio Zuniga Rios, a 29-year-old Mexican national, allegedly kidnaped and raped a 4-year-old girl in suburban Riverside County on Sept. 14, 1992. The suspect is believed to have returned to Mexico, authorities say, although his current whereabouts are unknown.

Mexican officials, including Carpizo, have been silent on the issue. The attorney general’s chief spokesman, Alfredo Otamendi Monsalve, said Friday that no comment would be forthcoming.

“It would certainly be worrisome if an arrangement such as the one that has been talked about was made,” said Sergio Aguayo, a longtime human rights activist in Mexico. He added that he was waiting for more facts before jumping to conclusions. “It’s a very delicate case.”

According to Shaw, a seven-term lawmaker from Ft. Lauderdale, Carpizo made his promise to pursue extradition both in the Wednesday telephone conversation and in a Nov. 10 letter to U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno.

“He (Carpizo) assured me the extradition would go forward--if they can catch him (Zuniga),” Shaw said in a telephone interview from Washington on Friday.

The Republican ultimately cast a “yes” vote. He had previously been undecided. “What was key in my vote for NAFTA was that the Mexicans show good faith under an existing treaty,” Shaw said.

In July, Shaw and two other congressmen wrote to Salinas asking him to take “immediate action” to have Zuniga extradited to the United States.

According to analysts here, the attorney general would be unable to undertake such a significant shift in policy without presidential authorization.

“It would be unthinkable for Carpizo to go against current procedures in a case like this without orders from superiors,” said Miguel Basanez, a political analyst and pollster.

Mexican and U.S. negotiators are renegotiating their 15-year-old extradition treaty.

The precise legality of extraditions under Mexican law remains unclear. Some say Mexican law expressly forbids it. Others say extraditions may be legal, but only after judicial review.

Authorities at the Mexican attorney general’s office and embassy officials in Washington refused to answer even generic questions about the terms of the extradition treaty Friday.