From: nicanet@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.mexican
Date: 28 Dec 92 14:21 PST
Subject: Mexico Update 12/27/92
Nf-ID: #N:mRFiwB13w165w@nyxfer.uucp:1179162529:000:5036
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!nicanet    Dec 28 14:21:00 1992


Subject: Mexico Update 12/27/92
From: nyxfer!nicanet (NicaNet NY)


Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

from...
         Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York
       339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

            Weekly News Update #152, December 27, 1992


ZUNO ARCE CONVICTED IN CAMARENA CASE

On Dec. 21 a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Mexican
businessperson Ruben Zuno Arce of conspiracy in the 1985 torture
and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official
Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar in Guadalajara. The jury, which
deliberated for almost three days, was never told that one week
earlier presiding Judge Edward Rafeedie had dismissed charges
against codefendant Humberto Alvarez Machain for lack of
evidence. Zuno Arce's conviction was the eighth so far in the
Camarena murder, but this latest trial aroused special interest
because of Alvarez Machain, a Guadalajara gynecologist who was
kidnapped and brought to the US in 1990, setting off an
international furor. Zuno Arce is to be sentenced Feb. 8. [El
Diario-La Prensa (NY) 12/22/92 from AP] (Zuno Arce's brother-in-
law is Luis Echeverria Alvarez, president of Mexico 1970-76.
Echeverria was Interior Minister 1963-1970, and many consider him
responsible for the October, 1968, massacre of several hundred
students and their supporters in Mexico City.)
 

"MACHAIN DOCTRINE" LIVES ON

Tensions are reportedly continuing between Mexico and the US over
the Alvarez Machain case. The US government is now demanding that
Mexico investigate DEA claims about a "killing field" in
Guadalajara that allegedly contains the bodies of at least four
US citizens murdered by drug lords in 1984. (These were Jehovah's
Witnesses the drug traffickers are supposed to have mistaken for
DEA agents.) The US claims Mexico is refusing to excavate the
graves and repatriate the remains. [Washington Post 12/18/92]
Meanwhile, the Mexican government issued a communique on Dec. 19
calling on the US government to "explicitly acknowledge that the
kidnapping of Alvarez Machain constituted a violation of
international law and that jurisdiction rests exclusively with
the Mexican authorities." The communique stresses that Mexico is
interested in strengthening cooperation with the US in the fight
against drug trafficking, "but on the basis of strict adherence
to international law and with mutual trust and respect." [IPS
12/19/92] And Alvarez Machain himself is now saying he'll file
suit against the US district attorneys and the hired witnesses
used at his trial. The doctor told a Guadalajara press conference
that he would demand several million dollars in compensation. He
was kidnapped and abused, he charged, his family was badly
treated, and his reputation damaged. [Cubanews from Radio Havana
Cuba 12/18/92]
 
Things may not change much after Bill Clinton's inauguration.
What New York's El Diario-La Prensa calls the "Machain Doctrine"-
-"the imperialistic principle" that "the kidnapping of citizens
of other countries on foreign soil by American agents [is]
perfectly legal and acceptable" [12/22/92]--got a limited
endorsement from the president-elect on Dec. 15. Clinton said the
US Supreme Court "goes too far" in its June 15 decision upholding
the abduction. But he noted that he didn't feel the US should
renounce all rights to enter foreign territory: "[I] would say
that we shouldn't even think about this unless the other
government has deliberately refused to honor extradition requests
and tried to undermine what we were doing or wouldn't lift a
finger to try to comply with the law." [ED-LP 12/16/92 from AP;
quotations retranslated from Spanish]
 

MEXICO ANGRY AT ACQUITTAL OF US BORDER GUARD

The Mexican Foreign Ministry says it is "profoundly concerned"
about an Arizona court's decision to acquit a US border guard who
shot Mexican undocumented immigrant Dario Miranda to death last
June. The Mexican government says there was sufficient evidence
to prove that agent Michael Elmer shot Miranda in the back,
though Elmer says he fired in self-defense. Elmer faces 11 other
charges of aggravated assault against Mexican nationals. Mexico
says it will ask the US government for Elmer to be retried on
charges of violating Miranda's human rights and will file a civil
suit against US immigration authorities on behalf of Miranda's
family. [Cubanews from Radio Havana Cuba 12/18/92]
 

                               -30-

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