Drug War Expert: CIA Connection to 'Kiki' Camarena Murder Product of DEA Resentment John McPhaul - Tico Times
go to original November 8, 2013

Former top Mexican cartel boss Rafael Caro Quintero – who masterminded the kidnap and murder of U.S. DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena in 1985 – was released from this Mexican prison in Zapotlanejo, Jalisco State, in August. He served 28 years. (AFP/Héctor Guerrero)

Lingering resentment toward the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency among U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officers over the circumstances surrounding the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena might be behind a Mexican magazine report alleging CIA involvement in the murder, said one drug war expert.

Bruce Bagley, a professor of international studies at Florida International University in Miami, who closely follows the United States’ ongoing drug war, said DEA resentment of the CIA for refusing to produce an informant for the trial of Mexican doctor Humberto Álvarez Machain – who allegedly participated in Camarena’s murder – could explain why former DEA agents have connected the CIA to the killing.

Álvarez allegedly injected Camarena with lidocaine – a local anesthetic and antiarrhythmic agent – to keep him alert during his three days of torture.

But a court in Los Angeles, California, released the doctor after two years in custody for lack of evidence, after the CIA refused to produce the witness.

In statements made to Fox News, two former DEA agents, Hector Berrellez, who headed the DEA investigation into the murder, and Phil Jordan, chief of the DEA’s El Paso office, implicated the CIA, saying that operatives of the U.S. spy agency were present in Mexico for Camarena’s interrogation, torture and murder.

Read the rest at Tico Times

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