Mexico Leaders Indignant Over U.S. Border Campaign

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Controversy over U.S. reaction to the kidnaping of an American narcotics agent here intensified Wednesday as Mexican government, political and business leaders expressed indignation.

One U.S. diplomat said that to judge from the harsh reaction in Mexico, the disruption of traffic at the border by U.S. agents under “Operation Intercept” may represent the most serious incident between the two countries in several years.

“Mexico is much more than a bunch of dope pushers,” said Jose Luis Gonzalez Inigo, the vice president of a national business association. “We are . . . a nation, and a responsible one at that.”

Criticism of U.S. political and police practices is rarely heard in business circles here, where commerce with the United States is highly valued, but Gonzalez’s comments appeared to reflect a widely held sentiment.

In an effort to contain the controversy, U.S. Ambassador John Gavin flew to Washington from Mexico City on Wednesday to confer with State Department officials. He is expected to discuss both Operation Intercept and the possibility of issuing a travel advisory warning Americans of the danger of criminal activity in Guadalajara and the Pacific Coast resort of Puerto Vallarta.

“As far as I understand, he will not be making a recommendation on (the travel advisory) question one way or the other,” a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said in a telephone interview. “He would like to convey to them the nature of the problem. . . . “

Other diplomats said privately that Gavin had been surprised by the onset of Operation Intercept and that he intended to complain to officials in Washington.

However, in Washington, top officials of four federal agencies were reported to have decided Tuesday to maintain the intensive searches of vehicles crossing the Mexican-U.S. border, begun last Friday, for the rest of this week in a search for clues in the Feb. 7 kidnaping in Guadalajara of U.S. drug enforcement agent Enrique S. Camarena.

An official familiar with the session said, “They agreed there would be no letup, but that they will look at it again toward the end of the week.” The official declined to be identified by name or agency.

Meanwhile, Atty. Gen. William French Smith defended the border stops in an interview. “Whenever one of our agents is harmed in any way, we react very strongly,” he said. “We are going to do everything possible to see that whoever is responsible comes to justice.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy official in Mexico said Gavin would like to find an “elegant solution” that would avoid the issuance of a travel advisory. Issuing an advisory would be sure to intensify the controversy here because such warnings have the effect of reducing American tourism, on which Mexico counts heavily.

At the same time, he added, the combined pressure from the kidnaping of Camarena and a series of violent incidents in the same region of Mexico involving other Americans has complicated the problem.

Lee Johnson, an embassy spokesman, said nine violent crimes against Americans were reported in Puerto Vallarta in January: one rape, one homicide and seven robberies. Consular officials here added that three more American women reported being raped there in the first week in February.

He acknowledged that some U.S. officials believe that applying pressure on the Mexican government--by slowing traffic at the border or by issuing a travel advisory--will have the added benefit of inducing it to intensify the search for Camarena.

The State Department considered issuing a travel advisory last October in the wake of a number of robberies and assaults on American tourists along Mexico’s main highways. However, plans for the advisory were shelved after Mexican officials assured Washington that new steps would be taken to assure highway security.

Mexican newspapers Wednesday printed excerpts from a telegram sent to Gavin by the Mexican Senate committee that oversees border affairs, pleading with him to intercede with the State Department to stop Operation Intercept.

“This measure is affecting our good relations in the realms of social interchange, labor and commerce,” the telegram said in part.

Times staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow in Washington contributed to this story.