By William A..Orme Jr.. Special to The Washington Post vO MEXICO CITY, March 6—The bodies of kidnaped U.S. Drug En- forcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena Salazar and a Mexican colleague were found this morning near the rural home of a family of accused narcotics traffick- ers who died: last weekend in a po- lice shoot-out, Mexican and U,S. officials announced. Preliminary identification based on clothing was made by U.S. and , Mexican authorities this afternoon “in Guadalajara, U.S. Ambassador Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001900750004-7 high degree of certainty that. it is them,” said Francisco Fonseca, chief. spokesman for Mexico’s at- torney general, adding that a formal Mexican government statement on Thursday, “when all the facts are known.” ’ month ago, Mexican sources said. “at least 15 days” and he knew of no John Gavin, reported. “There isa. the case might not be issued until ‘The two men apparently were’. killed shortly after their abduction a. Gavin said the two had been dead evidence to support reports that the. bodies showed signs of torture. Fo- “rensic. reports were awaited on cause of death. : re [In Washington, DEA ‘Acting Ad- " ‘ministrator Jack Lawn said the bod- -jes “had been subjected to physical violence,” with broken bones but no bullet wounds. Details on A16.] Calling the murders of Camarena ‘and Alfredo Zavala Avelar “losses in “an ongoing war,” Gavin noted that — were killed—reportedly five—today in a several. Mexican _ police * . oe? confrontation with marijuana traf- fickers near San Fernando, about 70 miles south of Mexico’s eastern . border with Texas. Although the discovery repre- sents “the first real breakthro ist jin the officially reported details of the . the case,” apparent discrepancies raid that led to the recovery of the ; corpses have caused “confusion” | regarding the kidnapers’ presumed + motives and identities, U.S. sources: said. “There are a lot of incofsis- tencies, a lot of holes in the sti _ said one. or Discovered near the. city of Za- mora in the state of Michoacan, the badly decomposed bodies were» transported for autopsies » ta4 Guadalajara, capital of neighboring} Jalisco state. Camarena and Zavala, See MEXICO, A16, Col. 1 Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001900750004-7
Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001900750004-7 “ nthe ae he EA Agent’s os MEXICO, From Al B: Mexican government ‘pilot who quad flown missions for the DEA Rheré, had been kidnaped Feb. 7 in ®separate incidents in different parts: Hof Guadalajara. = While the @apparently was revéaled by an Zanonymious Mexican police _infor- Emant, the $50,000 U.S, govern- Rmenit reward remains unclaimed, dGavin said. | A The corpsés” were reportedly found at 4 a.m. in plastic bags on sproperty behind the home of Man- tyel Bravo” Cervantes, who was | Saturday with his wife and  iftwo sons “ina “coiifrontation with “A former Micho- state congréssman, Bravo Cer- Evantes was Said by Mexican federal Zofficials to be involved in drug- theft and highway as- in the Michoacan-Jalisco re- running, car ‘Baults evion. t “They were hot major drug traf- % According to police reports, all jour members of the Bravo family Mresponded to surrender demands _Byith rifle fire, prompting a pro- longed exchange ‘in which one fed- geral judicial police agent died after Fbeing hit with 17 bullets from an FAR15 semiautomatic rifle. # When. police burst ‘into the fam- | ily’s modest ‘ceiient-block home, Bravo Cervantes’ wife, wounded on agents, who shot back and killed her, they later reported. Her hus- ; band and sons already were dead, | they said. . oe } ~ The gunbattle, in which federal, | and Jalisco state police participated, * Oy ' : i | location of the bodies . ne informed U.S. source the floor, fired“a handgun at the . can Shoot-Out — provoked an untisual protest from | the governor of Michoacan, who complained in a message yesterday to the governor of Jalisco and to Federal Attorney General Sergio Garcia Ramirez that his state’s “sovereignty” had been violated. Michoacan state. police learned of the clash “only after the firefight had begun” and were forcibly kept - -at a distance by federal authorities on the scene, Gov. Cuauhtemoc Cardenas said. Five suspects arrested at or near the Bravo home. Saturday were brought to Guadalajara for ques- tioning and released late Monday evening. Among them were the wives of the two Bravo sons who died in the gunfight. The two wo- men were detained, police reports said, while driving a car stocked. with ammunition. “If this is true, it seems odd that they would simply be let go,” a US. source commented. Some local officials and residents — questioned the official account of ~ the armed confrontation, with sev- eral contending that the Bravos were denied an opportunity to give themselves up. “they were victim- ized,” said Octavio Ortiz, chief spokesman for Michoacan’s state government. If the Bravos had been arrested alive, Ortiz suggested to- day in a telephone interview, “they might also have been released like the others were.” The Bravos lived in an unprepos- sessing two-story home along the main road in the small rural settle- ment of La Angostura. Much of the village turned out yesterday for the ‘funeral and burial of the Bravo fam- ily, according to local press reports. Mexican federal police reported yo MEXICO City CZ oa BY DAVE COOK—-THE WASHINGTON POST the confiscation from the Bravo home of two pounds of cocaine and several high-powered weapons, in- cluding two AR15s and three Mis. For more than a year prior to his kidnaping, Camarena was involved_ in Operation Godfather, a joint \ U.S.-Mexican investigation of Mex- = ican cocaine smuggling. DEA agent Edward Heath, who runs the agen- cy’s Mexican program, was at the Bravo home this morning to assist. in the identification of Camarena’s body, sources reported. No DEA agent, however, wit- nessed Saturday’s gunfight, al- though one arrived “after the dust had cleared,” the sources said. The Bravo clan were not among those, | suspected of involvement in the kid- naping by DEA agents here, U.S. | sources said. , A former federal. police agent believed by DEA to have informa- tion on Camarena’s whereabouts was released last week after a day of questioning. “We are satisfied , that he was not involved” in the Ca- . marena abduction, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said. U.S. officials repeatedly have | urged Mexican: law enforcement officers to prosecute the leaders of ° the “18 major gangs” of traffickers. | that DEA.says operate in Mexico. Yesterday, Luis Octavio Porte Pet- it, Mexico’s deputy attorney gen- eral, formally asked the U.S, Em-. passy here to provide “concrete information” about key figures in Mexico’s narcotics trade. Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001900750004-7 \
Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001900750004-7 | | DEA Cites Data. ‘saat ) Indicating Agent Beaten Not Shot | ' By Loretta Tofani | « Washington Post Staff Writer, “he bodies found yesterday in “Mexico, apparently including that of a missing Drug Enforcement, Ad- ministration agent, “had been sub- jected to physical violence,” Acting ; DEA Administrator Jack Lawn said last, night. Lawn quoted a medical examiner _in Mexico as saying the two had broken bones and one had a“ gash across his head that could have been the cause of death. “No bullet wounds were reported, Lawn said’ at a press conference. The bodies thought to. be those of Enrique Camarena Salazar and a gitexican pilot were wrapped in plas-_ tic and “dumped on a roadside,” he aid. The pilot had flown missions for DEA, _ The bodies, which were decom- {| posed, previously had been buried at another location and exhumed, according to a DEA source. The bodies were discovered on a roadside near Zamora by Mexican federal police, who were acting ona tip, Lawn said. Lawn said he is in “regular contact” with the State Department, Attorney General Ed- - win Meese and the White House about the incident. Camarena, 37, a Mexican-born naturalized Ameritan with nearly 11 years’ experience at the DEA,. | was abducted Feb. 7 as he left his - Guadalajara office to have lunch with his wife. An eyewitness told DEA investigators that Camarena _ was grabbed by four armed men and thrown face down into a car. The pilot was abducted the same day in a different section of the city. Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001900750004-7
agent dead . ee mors ; paaad - Tentative ID made > in Me? of decomposed body By James Bock "_ Mexico City Bureau of The Sun - MEXICO CITY — The body of a kidnapped American drug agent has . apparently been found at a Mexican . ranch, U.S. officials here said yester- day. — vs wombs pe oe "Ambassador John Gavin said a “preliminary only “a‘ frail and flimsy hope” that - fhe badly decomposed body was not © that of Enrique Camarena Salazar, a 87-year-old veteran drug agent. Mr. -Camarena was kidnapped February 7 by four armed men outside the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara. Another body recovered at El Marengo, a ranch 90 miles southeast . of. Guadalajara, was_ tentatively identified as that of Alfredo Zavala Avelar, a Mexican pilot involved in . the joint U.S.-Mexican drug eradica- tion program who was kidnapped the sarfie “hey as Mr. Camarena in Guadalajara. El Mareno was the site of a shoot- otit on Saturday that left five per- sotis dead after Mexican police raid- ed the ranch looking for ‘the drug _ agent and the pilot. No trace of the . Sfilgging men was reported, however, - The bodies, which had been dead at least 15 days, were badly decom- : ad and the preliminary identi- “ fication of Mr. Camarena was made from clothing, Mr. Gavin said. U'S. officials were present, he said, when ‘the bodies were examined at a hospi- tal in Zamora, about 20'miles east of the ranch. : ~ Gua elajara last night for positive records and other forensic materi- | dls, the ambassador said. _..Mr. Gavin said there were ‘“con- flicting reports” concerning how and - fle said U.S: officials were told had been abandoned at the ranch Tuesday night, but that “very early in the morning they told us the bod- ies had been found.” _ AUS. EmbaspRoberPoFMelease 2006/8910 See MEXICO, 4A, Col. 5 identification” " left © bodies weré to be flown to | that a search for the kidnapped men THURSDAY _MARCH 7.1985 ___ a OT aon THURSDAY MARCH 7, 1985 Kidnapped U.S. agent feared dead in Mexico ' MEXICO, from 1A no American officials were present when the bodies were discovered. A Red Cross volunteer in Zamora, Jaime Arizaga, said in a phone inter- view that he and three others were called to the ranch at 5 a.m. yester- day, but arrived to find the bodies in plastic bags atop a patrol car and the ranch sealed off by Mexican |: Federal Judicial Police. Mexican television reported that the bodies were found buried in plas- tic bags in a lemon grove, their hands and feet tied, and that they had been badly beaten. One report said the two men had been tortured and buried alive. The Mexican Attorney General’s Office provided no immediate de- tails. The Saturday raid on the ranch was launched after Mexican authori- ties in Guadalajara received an anonymous tip that the two men were being held there, Mr. Gavin said. A Mexican police agent was . among those killed in the shootout. No evidence of drug trafficking was found at the ranch, but “we still believe major drug traffickers were involved in the kidnapping,”’said Lee Johnson, an embassy spokesman. Mr. Gavin said the United States was receiving “good cooperation from the Mexican authorities at this time.” U.S. accusations last month that corrupt Mexican officials were stall- ing the Camarena investigation put severe strains on U.S.-Mexican rela- tions. , The U.S. mounted Operation In- tercept, a 10-day, program of ex- haustive car-by-car searches that nearly paralyzed commerce and tourism along the 1,700-mile border, to catch Mexican officials’ attention. ‘ Only a February 22 telephone call from Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado to President Reagan, protesting Operation Inter- cept, began to restore normalcy to U.S.-Mexican relations. U.S. officials said they believed the border opera- tion helped inject vigor into the Ca- marena investigation. — The Caer effect on the coun- of a meeting next week between Mexican Foreign Minister Bernardo tid AeRDRASsORd Gig 00 1900: ASSOGATED PRESS Kidnapped agent Enrique Ca- marena Salazar is believed dead. Sepulveda and Secretary of State George P. Shultz in Washington. A shootout yesterday morning at a highway checkpoint in northern Mexico left five police officers dead. They were reportedly machine- gunned by drug traffickers protect- ing a truckload of marijuana. Mr. Gavin called the drug fight an “ongoing war” and said,“‘There is a very real possibility that our own agents may once again suffer these kinds of attacks.” The United States closed nine re- mote crossings on the Mexican bor- der last weekend because of threats on American officials. Mitterand seeks to raise French speakers’ profile President Francois Mitterrand yesterday launched a crusade to ex- pand the influence of the French- - speaking world in the face of a grow- ing Anglo-Saxon onslaught. Mr. Mitterrand, who speaks no foreign language, hosted the first meeting of the Francophone High —. ON PAAp/of 28 French-speak- * ing writers, political figures and art- ists.