From: anchor-man@NEWSWIRE.ATT.COM
Subject: Alvarez Machain will be home for Xmas...
Reply-To: Multiple recipients of list MEXICO-L <MEXICO-L@TECMTYVM.BITNET>
Organization: AT&T
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 00:59:22 GMT

 UPI-Clarinews

Date: 15 Dec 92 14:03:00 GMT
Subject: Mexican doctor acquitted in Camarena case


        LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- More than two years after Dr. Humberto Alvarez
Machain was kidnapped and brought to the United States to face trial, a
federal judge acquitted the Mexican physician because the case against
him was so weak a jury should not be allowed to consider it.
        U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie in Los Angeles ruled Monday that
prosecutors failed to prove Alvarez Machain, 44, was involved in the
killing of Enrique Camarena. Before the acquittal, the Guadalahara
gynecologist had faced a possible life sentence on murder and conspiracy
charges.
        ``There is no evidence that he participated in the kidnapping of
Camarena and that he even knew about it,'' Rafeedie said in a hearing
outside the presence of the jury.
        ``You may suspect that this happened. You may have a hunch that this
happened. But cases should not go to the jury on suspicion or a hunch,''
Rafeedie said.
        Alvarez Machain remained in custody briefly because the Immigration
and Naturalization Service put a hold on him, but by late Monday the
problem had been ironed out and Alvarez Machain flew to Mexico, escorted
onto the plane by INS guards.
        Alvarez Machain, in a telephone interview with Mexican broadcaster
Jacobo Zabludowsky, said gaining his freedom was ``a big triumph for
justice,'' and also a ``a big triumph for Mexico.''
        In February 1985, Camarena was abducted off a Guadalajara street,
taken to one of the homes of reputed Mexican drug kingpin Rafael Caro
Quintero and interrogated and tortured for more than 30 hours.
        Alvarez Machain was accused of injecting Camarena with the drug
Lidocaine to revive him during the torture session so questioning could
continue.
        Alvarez Machain, who was dressed in a dark-blue cardigan, green shirt
and grey pants, stood up and hugged his attorney when the judge made his
ruling.
        ``He was crying when he embraced me. He squeezed my hand and said
'thank you' in Spanish,'' defense attorney Alan Rubin said on the steps
of the federal courthouse. ``The significance of the moment overwhelmed
him.''
        Rafeedie said prosecutors offered no evidence that Alvarez Machain
actually administered the drug, nor did they find any injections or the
presence of lidocaine in Camarena's body. Instead, the judge said, the
prosecution's case was based on the ``wildest of speculation.''
        ``The jury must infer that Lidocaine was injected and that this
defendant injected him,'' Rafeedie said. ``A case should not go to the
jury based on a hunch or suspicion.''
        The judge said the prosecution's case was based on Alvarez Machain's
presence at the Guadalajara home when Camarena was tortured and on a
witness seeing him washing syringes.
        ``There has to be stronger evidence to ask a jury to find this man
guilty of murder, torture and kidnapping,'' Rafeedie said.
        Rubin commended the judge for his ``courageous decision'' and derided
the government for kidnapping Alvarez Machain from Guadalajara in April
1990.
        ``They (the government) hired the scum of the earth to kidnap this
man out of his country on the basis of one syringe,'' Rubin said.
        Alvarez Machain's kidnapping by U.S. paid agents led to a diplomatic
dispute between Mexico and the United States.
        The U.S. Supreme Court said the extradition treaty that exists
between the two countries did not specifically forbid Machain's
kidnapping. Despite Mexico's repeated requests, the United States has
refused to return the doctor who was charged with murder and conspiracy.
        ``That the government would kidnap a man and violate international
law on the basis of almost no evidence is incomprehensible,'' said ACLU
legal director Paul Hoffman, who had requested the World Court rule on
Alvarez Machain's kidnapping.
        Hoffman and Rubin said that Alvarez Machain deserves some kind of
compensation either through litigation or diplomacy.
        ``As a matter of morality and justice, he should be compensated,''
Rubin said.
        Alvarez Machain has been held at the Inmate Detention Center in Los
Angeles since April 1990.
        ``He's been away from his family for three years. The primary thing
is to get him home,'' Hoffman said.
        The Guadalajara gynecologist was on trial with Ruben Zuno Arce, 56,
who is the brother-in-law of former Mexican President Luis Echeverria
Alvarez.
        Zuno's trial on charges of kidnapping and conspiracy will continue.
If convicted, he would face life in prison.
        Zuno is accused of planning Camarena's abduction by drug traffickers
the day he was tortured. Some 21 people have been sentenced in the
United States and Mexico for the Camarena murder.
        Hoffman said Alvarez Machain does not face any criminal charges in
Mexico and cannot be charged with murder and conspiracy again.
        The U.S. Attorney's spokeswoman said the Office had no comment about
the judge's decision.
        Robert Bonner, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said
Monday in Washington that the DEA did not agree with the District
Court's ruling.
        ``We respect it and will abide by it,'' Bonner said in a statement.
``The court's decision will not deter the DEA's commitment to
investigate all those responsible for the kidnap and murder of Special
Agent Enrique Camarena.''

====
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 12:49:03 PST
Subject: Doctor freed by U.S. judge arrives in Mexico

        MEXICO CITY (UPI) -- A Mexican doctor acquitted in Los Angeles of
charges he participated in the torture-slaying of a U.S. drug agent
returned to Mexico Tuesday, but said he did not know where he was being
held or whether he would face charges here.
        Humberto Alvarez Machain, kidnapped from Mexico in April 1990 and
delivered to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, was acquitted on
murder and conspiracy charges after the trial judge ruled Monday that
the case against him was based on the ``wildest speculation.''
        But the gynecologist told the Televisa network in a telephone
interview early Tuesday he did not know where he was taken by Mexican
agents after arriving in Mexico City. Televisa said it also did not know
where he was held and had obtained the phone number through Mexican
officials.
        Alvarez Machain was charged in the 1985 torture-murder of DEA agent
Enrique Camarena. The killing by drug traffickers took place in
Guadalajara, Mexico, a hotbed of drug activity.
        The doctor, who arrived in the capital in the early morning hours
after being released by U.S. authorities Monday night, said he was
``happy'' to be in Mexico, but was waiting to talk to Mexican officials
to clear up his status.
        Alvarez Machain, held for 32 months in a Los Angeles jail despite
protests by the Mexican government, said he did not know if he was being
formally detained by Mexican authorities.
        ``At any rate I am here. Whatever the charge or whatever the legal
situation, we will resolve it,'' he said. ``We are waiting to speak with
the corresponding authorities to clear up everything.''
        Rather than being flown from Los Angeles to his hometown of
Guadalajara, Alvarez Machain arrived in Mexico City and was ushered off
to an unknown location. Televisa said it had obtained the phone number
of the location from the Mexican attorney general's office.
        A spokeswoman for the attorney general said she had no information on
whether Alvarez Machain was being held or who was holding him. The
newspaper Excelsior said in its early afternoon edition Tuesday that he
was in the Foreign Ministry, but a spokesman there said he had no
information.
        Alvarez Machain, 44, was accused of injecting Camarena with the heart
medication Lidocaine so that questioning by drug traffickers could
continue.
        Camarena was abducted off a Guadalajara street in February 1985,
taken to the home of a Mexican narcotics kingpin and interrogated and
tortured for more than 30 hours.
        In the television interview, Alvarez Machain repeated his innocence,
praised U.S. judge Edward Rafeedie for dismissing the charges against
him after the prosecution presented its case, and said he had faith in
Mexican justice.
        The legality of his kidnapping was taken to the U.S. Supreme Court,
which ruled on June 15 of this year that a binational extradition treaty
did not specifically rule out kidnappings. The ruling sparked outrage in
Mexico and throughout Latin America.
        Alvarez Machain was on trial with Mexican businessman Ruben Zuno
Arce, the brother-in-law of former President Luis Echeverria. Charges
against Zuno were not dismissed and his trial will continue. U.S.
prosecutors said Zuno helped plan the DEA agent's kidnapping along with
a DEA pilot also slain.
        Alvarez Machain said it was up to his lawyers to decide whether he
would sue the U.S. Justice Department for his detention.
--

Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 14:31:49 PST
Subject: Wife provides alibi for defendant in Camarena case

        LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- The wife of the brother-in-law of a former
Mexican president testified Tuesday that her husband was with her the
day drug traffickers plotted the 1985 killing of U.S. drug agent Enrique
Camarena.
        Maria Enriquetta Zuno Arce testified in federal court that Ruben Zuno
Arce was at the couple's farm in Mascota, Jalisco.
        Camarena was tortured and killed Feb. 7, 1985, at the Guadalajara
home of reputed Mexican drug kingpin Rafael Caro Quintero. Drug
traffickers plotted Camarena's kidnapping and death that day.
        Zuno testified that her husband was on a planning committee to
celebrate Mascota's centennial in February.
        ``He had to raise the flag in the main plaza on a daily basis,'' she
said.
        The testimony came one day after U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie
acquitted Zuno's co-defendant, Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain, of all
charges.
        Rafeedie ruled that the case against the Guadalajara gynecologist was
so weak that the 12-member jury should not be allowed to consider it.
        Alvarez Machain, 44, was accused of injecting lidocaine, a heart
drug, into Camarena to keep him conscious during the agent's torture. He
was kidnapped by U.S. agents in Mexico and turned over to officials with
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
        Alvarez Machain was charged with murder and conspiracy. He flew to
Mexico City early Tuesday following his release. He had been held in the
United States for more than two and a half years.
        Zuno, 62, is charged with kidnapping and conspiracy in Camarena's
death. If convicted, he would face life in prison. Zuno is the brother-
in-law of former Mexican President Luis Echeverria Alvarez.
        Ruben Zuno Arce also testified Tuesday and described the property he
owns in Mascota, which includes two small ranches, four small plots of
land and the vacant property where he and his wife once owned a cannery.
        Maria Enriquetta Zuno Arce said her husband knew Enrique Alvarez El
Castillo, the former Mexican Attorney General, and Miguel Ibarra
Herrera, former director of the Mexican Federal Judicial Police. Both
were known associates of the Mexican drug cartel that operated out of
Guadalajara.
        Prosecutors, who rested their case last week, claim Zuno also was an
associate of the cartel.