Consul General Says Mexican Nationals Are Mistreated : Minorities: He voices new concern about Sheriff’s Department conduct. Block defends his actions.

The Mexican consul general in Los Angeles, Jose Angel Pescador Osuna, expressed new concern Tuesday about the conduct of Los Angeles County sheriff’s officers toward Mexican nationals, citing three cases since April, and said Sheriff Sherman Block has been slow to agree to meet with him.

The consul said he has “shared responsibility” with local authorities for the welfare of what he estimated to be 4.3 million Mexican nationals in Southern California--those here with or without legal immigration documents.

Pescador said he has every intention of getting along with Block and “we need mutual confidence.” But he added that Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams has been more willing to see him.

Block quickly responded that he has met with Pescador “on a number of occasions” and “I don’t understand what his complaint is.”

The sheriff added that the consul general has sometimes been impatient with the amount of information he has received from the Sheriff’s Department on the progress of investigations into allegations of misconduct.

“We can’t provide any more information than we can provide to anyone,” Block said. “Certain information while an investigation proceeds is unavailable.”

Pescador did thank the Sheriff’s Department for allowing the consulate to post 50 small signs inside the county prison system giving a toll-free number for inmates to contact Mexican diplomats with any complaints or observations.

He said the complaints he has received primarily have concerned a lack of Spanish language newspapers, books and television programs in the jails but have not involved allegations of brutality.

Block said the plan for the signs had been worked out in a meeting in February with the consul general.

Pescador also noted that federal, state and local authorities have agreed to visits to Southern California prison facilities next month by consular aides, who will be able to meet imprisoned Mexican nationals.

The three cases of alleged misconduct by sheriff’s deputies cited by Pescador involved the fatal shooting of Santiago Lopez Garcia in April, the aggressive search of an Eastside neighborhood after a sheriff’s deputy was killed in May, and the fatal shooting of Jesus Vargas this month.