Mexico won't back off refusal to let U.S. agents carry guns

CNN August 25, 1998

Mexico won't back off refusal to let U.S. agents carry guns

                  MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Concerned by U.S. attempts to guide Mexican
                  anti-drug efforts, officials here are again rejecting calls to let American agents
                  carry arms in Mexico.

                  U.S. officials have long argued that Drug Enforcement Administration agents
                  need to carry weapons to protect themselves from drug gangs while on
                  Mexican soil. A DEA agent, Enrique Camarena, was kidnapped, tortured
                  and killed by drug traffickers in 1985.

                  Mexico has repeatedly rejected the request, seeing the presence of foreign
                  armed agents as a threat to its sovereignty. The Foreign Relations Secretariat
                  on Monday rejected the demands again.

                  "The government of Mexico has repeatedly and emphatically indicated that it
                  will not grant such permission," said secretariat spokesman Oscar Ramirez
                  Suarez in a news release.

                  The statement came in response to a proposal by two Republican
                  lawmakers, Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio and Rep. Bill McCollum of Florida,
                  which would offer new helicopters for Mexico if the country allows U.S.
                  agents to carry weapons here.

                  The proposal is part of their "Western Hemisphere Drug Elimination Act of
                  1998," which also urges that all U.S. law enforcement officials working
                  across the border be granted diplomatic immunity.

The proposal comes at a time of increased Mexican sensitivity to U.S.
drug-fighting efforts here.

                  Mexican lawmakers expressed outrage in May when the U.S. announced
                  that U.S. agents working secretly in Mexico had been involved in the arrest
                  of several Mexican bankers on money-laundering charges.

                  Mexican officials claimed that the operation violated the country's
                  sovereignty as well as agreements to share information. The attorney
                  general's office has vowed to try to extradite and prosecute the U.S. agents.

                  Meanwhile, a federal court here has blocked extradition of a major
                  drug-traffic suspect wanted by the United States, Oscar Malherbe,
                  newspapers reported Tuesday.

                  Drug agents claim Malherbe took over leadership of Mexico's Gulf Cartel
                  following the 1996 arrest of Juan Garcia Abrego. In January, a Mexican
                  court sentenced Malherbe to two years in prison on weapons charges.

                  Malherbe is wanted on multiple drug-trafficking charges in the United States.
                  The new court ruling blocks extradition at least until all legal cases against
                  him in Mexico are resolved.