ABSTRACT
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena had been investigating drug activities in northern Mexico and uncovered a vast drug ranch protected by local authorities. Its annual production was so large-eight thousand tons of marijuana-that it blew the lid off of U.S. figures for total annual marijuana consumption. The ranch was raided at Camarena’s instigation. As the United States was to find out much later, Camarena was tortured and murdered to pay for the resulting loss of millions in profits to the local drug lord.“We knew within five to six days that he [Camarena] was dead. . . . He was set up and killed by the Mexican security forces he was working with.”3 Very slowly the Mexicans admitted to the participation of government forces, but they argued that the case’s resolution was a local “police matter,” and not for U.S. investigation or interference. In the American view, the Mexican government deliberately withheld information, misled U.S. officials, and stalled resolution of the case. Evidence and witnesses disappeared, raids were made without contacting U.S. authorities, mysterious bodies turned up planted in different locations. Even Secretary of State Shultz, whose public statements on Mexico were rare, told a Senate Committee, “Our level of tolerance has been exceeded.”4
