Mexico Says Steps Will Ease Border Tension

In the aftermath of a controversial police beating and a deadly truck crash involving Mexican immigrants in Riverside County, Mexico announced a series of agreements with the Justice Department on Sunday aimed at preventing similar incidents.

The agreements range from official reviews of police procedures in towns along the U.S. side of the border to human rights courses by Mexican officials for future U.S. Border Patrol agents.

“The U.S. Justice Department promised to begin contacting local police in the state of California, particularly in Riverside, to examine the methods and procedures, as well as the training of local police forces, in an effort to avoid similar incidents,” Mexico’s Department of Foreign Affairs declared in a communique issued here.

The communique, which reported the results of recent meetings between senior Mexican diplomats and top Justice Department officials in Washington, added, “Justice Department authorities agreed with Mexico’s request to conduct this review process with local police all along the Mexican border.”

The announcement came as the death toll rose to eight in the crash of the speeding truck, which flipped over April 6 while being followed by the Border Patrol in Riverside County.

Riverside County coroner’s officials said they have not identified the man who died Saturday; he had been in critical condition with severe brain injuries since the accident that killed seven others and injured 19, six of whom remain hospitalized.

The truck accident, which occurred less than a week after Riverside County sheriff’s deputies were videotaped beating two suspected illegal Mexican immigrants, provoked outrage in the Mexican Congress and stern condemnations in diplomatic notes from the government of President Ernesto Zedillo.

Sunday’s report from Zedillo’s foreign secretary stated that officials from both nations also discussed Mexico’s concerns that the incidents were linked to new, hard-line U.S. immigration policies and possible “new immigration laws that could bring grave consequences to our nationals.”

“Finally, it was agreed that during the current year, officials from Mexico’s Department of Foreign Relations will conduct a brief course in human rights, consular protection and idiosyncrasies in the treatment of Mexicans for cadets in the U.S. Border Patrol.”

At the same time, the Mexican government also released an internal U.S. Justice Department memorandum updating the progress of the FBI’s investigation into the beatings.

The April 12 memo from Richard W. Roberts, chief of the criminal section of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, stated that 60 witnesses had been interviewed, including other drivers whose cars were forced off the road or rammed during the chase, and all but one of the 22 immigrants in the truck.

The driver, Roberts said, still had not been found.

A 19-year-old illegal immigrant has been charged in federal court in San Diego with being one of the smugglers.

The memo added that investigators have seized the batons and shoes of the sheriff’s deputies videotaped in the beating, as well as the victims’ clothing. It also reported that the FBI has obtained the original audiotape that a CHP officer made of a portion of the beating and sent it to FBI headquarters, along with videotape from three local television stations.

Times staff writer Emi Endo in Los Angeles contributed to this story.