Enrique Camarena
Encyclopedia
Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar (Mexicali
, Baja California
, Mexico July 26, 1947 - c. (Guadalajara
, Jalisco
, Mexico, February 9, 1985) was an undercover agent for the United States
Drug Enforcement Administration
who was abducted on 7 February 1985, and then tortured and murdered, while on assignment in Mexico
.
, where he served for two years. He then joined the DEA at their Calexico, California
office. In 1977, Camarena moved to their Fresno
office, and in 1981 he was assigned to the agency's Guadalajara, Jalisco
office in Mexico
. Camarena had also worked as a firefighter
and police
investigator before joining the DEA in Calexico.
Camarena's work became famous all over the United States
and Latin America
before he died. He infiltrated drug trafficking bands and successfully helped break up many of them. He managed to keep his face off the newspapers and other media despite the fact his name was well known.
In 1984, acting on information by Camarena, 450 Mexican soldiers backed by helicopters destroyed a 1000-hectare marijuana plantation known as 'Rancho Búfalo', where more than 3,000 farmers worked these fields, the annual production which was later valued at $8 billion. The drug lords were outraged and set to investigate the source of the leak. Supreme drug lord
Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo
ordered the kidnapping of Enrique Camarena on February 7, 1985, which apparently was done in broad daylight by corrupt police officers in his payroll. Camarena was tortured and bludgeoned to death soon after. Although his body was found on March 5, he may have been killed about one month before that: pathologists who examined his body believed the actual date of death was more likely around February 9. Camarena's body was found in a rural area outside a small town by the name of La Angostura in the state of Michoacan
, Mexico.
(DEA) and launched Operation Leyenda, the largest DEA homicide investigation ever undertaken. A special unit was dispatched to coordinate the investigation in Mexico - where corrupt officials were being implicated. Investigators soon identified Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo
and his two close associates: Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo
and Rafael Caro Quintero
as the primary suspects in the kidnapping. Under enormous pressure from the U.S.A., Fonseca and Quintero were quickly apprehended, however, Félix Gallardo still enjoyed political protection.
The United States government pursued a lengthy investigation of Camarena's murder. Due to the difficulty of extraditing Mexican citizens, the DEA went as far as to detain two suspects, Humberto Álvarez Machaín
, the physician who allegedly prolonged Camarena's life so the torture could continue, and Javier Vásquez Velasco, kidnapped and taken into the United States. Despite vigorous protests from the Mexican government, Álvarez was tried in United States District Court
in Los Angeles
. The trial resulted in an acquittal, by a judge before the trial commenced. The four others, Vásquez Velasco, Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez and Ruben Zuno Arce (a relative of former President Luis Echeverría
) did not escape, and were found guilty of Camarena's kidnapping.
Zuno Arce was known to have ties to corrupt Mexican officials, and Mexican officials were implicated in covering up the murder. Mexican police had destroyed evidence on Camarena's body.
tournament named for him. The nationwide annual Red Ribbon Week
, which teaches school children and youths to avoid drug use, was begun in his memory.
Enrique Camarena is survived by his wife Mika and their three sons.
In 2004, the Enrique S. Camarena Foundation was established in Enrique's memory. Mika and Enrique Jr. serve on the all volunteer Board of Directors together with former DEA Agents, law enforcement personnel, family and friends of Agent Camarena, and others who share their commitment to alcohol, tobacco and other drug and violence prevention.
Several movies about Agent Camarena were produced in Mexico. In November 1988, Time
magazine featured Agent Camarena on the cover. A 1990 U.S television mini-series about Camarena, starring Treat Williams
and Steven Bauer
, were produced (Drug Wars: The Camarena Story
) an unofficial record of the events that occurred.
In 2005, the History Channel produced a documentary entitled Heroes Under Fire: Righteous Vendetta that chronicles the events. It also features interviews with family members, DEA agents and others involved in the investigation.
Also in 2005, the book entitled ¿O Plata O Plomo? The abduction and murder of DEA Agent Enrique Camarena was released. It was written by DEA Resident Agent in Charge James H. Kuykendall (Ret.).
Mexicali
Mexicali is the capital of the State of Baja California, seat of the Municipality of Mexicali, and 2nd largest city in Baja California. The City of Mexicali has a population of 689,775, according to the 2010 census, while the population of the entire metropolitan area reaches 936,826.The city...
, Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...
, Mexico July 26, 1947 - c. (Guadalajara
Guadalajara
Guadalajara may refer to:In Mexico:*Guadalajara, Jalisco, the capital of the state of Jalisco and second largest city in Mexico**Guadalajara Metropolitan Area*University of Guadalajara, a public university in Guadalajara, Jalisco...
, Jalisco
Jalisco
Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...
, Mexico, February 9, 1985) was an undercover agent for the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Drug Enforcement Administration
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
who was abducted on 7 February 1985, and then tortured and murdered, while on assignment in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
Biography
In 1972, Camarena joined the United States Marine CorpsUnited States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
, where he served for two years. He then joined the DEA at their Calexico, California
Calexico, California
Calexico is a city in Imperial County, California. The population was 38,572 at the 2010 census, up from 27,109 at the 2000 census. Calexico is about east of San Diego and west of Yuma, Arizona...
office. In 1977, Camarena moved to their Fresno
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
office, and in 1981 he was assigned to the agency's Guadalajara, Jalisco
Guadalajara, Jalisco
Guadalajara is the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, and the seat of the municipality of Guadalajara. The city is located in the central region of Jalisco in the western-pacific area of Mexico. With a population of 1,564,514 it is Mexico's second most populous municipality...
office in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Camarena had also worked as a firefighter
Firefighter
Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...
and police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
investigator before joining the DEA in Calexico.
Camarena's work became famous all over the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
before he died. He infiltrated drug trafficking bands and successfully helped break up many of them. He managed to keep his face off the newspapers and other media despite the fact his name was well known.
In 1984, acting on information by Camarena, 450 Mexican soldiers backed by helicopters destroyed a 1000-hectare marijuana plantation known as 'Rancho Búfalo', where more than 3,000 farmers worked these fields, the annual production which was later valued at $8 billion. The drug lords were outraged and set to investigate the source of the leak. Supreme drug lord
Drug lord
A drug lord, drug baron or kingpin is the term used to describe a person who controls a sizable network of persons involved in the illegal drugs trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they might never be directly in possession of something illegal, but are insulated from...
Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo
Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo
Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo is a convicted Mexican drug lord known as "El Padrino" who in the 1980s formed the Guadalajara Cartel and became the first drug czar in Mexico to control all illegal drug traffic in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico-U.S.A...
ordered the kidnapping of Enrique Camarena on February 7, 1985, which apparently was done in broad daylight by corrupt police officers in his payroll. Camarena was tortured and bludgeoned to death soon after. Although his body was found on March 5, he may have been killed about one month before that: pathologists who examined his body believed the actual date of death was more likely around February 9. Camarena's body was found in a rural area outside a small town by the name of La Angostura in the state of Michoacan
Michoacán
Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...
, Mexico.
Investigation
The torture and murder of Camarena prompted a swift reaction from the U.S. Drug Enforcement AdministrationDrug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
(DEA) and launched Operation Leyenda, the largest DEA homicide investigation ever undertaken. A special unit was dispatched to coordinate the investigation in Mexico - where corrupt officials were being implicated. Investigators soon identified Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo
Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo
Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo is a convicted Mexican drug lord known as "El Padrino" who in the 1980s formed the Guadalajara Cartel and became the first drug czar in Mexico to control all illegal drug traffic in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico-U.S.A...
and his two close associates: Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo
Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo
Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo is a former Mexican narcotics trafficker, operating as leader of the Guadalajara Cartel alongside Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and Rafael Caro Quintero...
and Rafael Caro Quintero
Rafael Caro Quintero
Rafael Caro Quintero is an incarcerated Mexican drug lord born in La Noria, Badiraguato, Sinaloa. Quintero was a co-founder, with Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, of the Guadalajara Cartel and Sonora Cartel. Upon of the cartels' disintegration, its leaders were incorporated mostly into the Tijuana...
as the primary suspects in the kidnapping. Under enormous pressure from the U.S.A., Fonseca and Quintero were quickly apprehended, however, Félix Gallardo still enjoyed political protection.
The United States government pursued a lengthy investigation of Camarena's murder. Due to the difficulty of extraditing Mexican citizens, the DEA went as far as to detain two suspects, Humberto Álvarez Machaín
Humberto Álvarez Machaín
United States v. Alvarez-Machain, 504 U.S. 655 , was a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which held that the fact of respondent's forcible abduction does not prohibit his trial in a United States court for violations of this country's criminal laws. It re-confirmed the Ker-Frisbie...
, the physician who allegedly prolonged Camarena's life so the torture could continue, and Javier Vásquez Velasco, kidnapped and taken into the United States. Despite vigorous protests from the Mexican government, Álvarez was tried in United States District Court
United States district court
The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...
in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. The trial resulted in an acquittal, by a judge before the trial commenced. The four others, Vásquez Velasco, Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, Juan Jose Bernabe Ramirez and Ruben Zuno Arce (a relative of former President Luis Echeverría
Luis Echeverría
Luis Echeverría Álvarez served as President of Mexico from 1970 to 1976.-Early history:Echeverría joined the faculty of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1947 and taught political theory...
) did not escape, and were found guilty of Camarena's kidnapping.
Zuno Arce was known to have ties to corrupt Mexican officials, and Mexican officials were implicated in covering up the murder. Mexican police had destroyed evidence on Camarena's body.
Legacy
Agent Camarena received numerous awards while with the DEA, and after his death, he posthumously received the Administrator's Award of Honor, the highest award given by the organization. In Fresno, California, the DEA hosts a yearly golfGolf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
tournament named for him. The nationwide annual Red Ribbon Week
Red ribbon week
Red Ribbon Week is an alcohol, tobacco and other drug and violence prevention awareness campaign observed annually in October in the United States.-Murder of DEA agent:...
, which teaches school children and youths to avoid drug use, was begun in his memory.
Enrique Camarena is survived by his wife Mika and their three sons.
In 2004, the Enrique S. Camarena Foundation was established in Enrique's memory. Mika and Enrique Jr. serve on the all volunteer Board of Directors together with former DEA Agents, law enforcement personnel, family and friends of Agent Camarena, and others who share their commitment to alcohol, tobacco and other drug and violence prevention.
Several movies about Agent Camarena were produced in Mexico. In November 1988, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine featured Agent Camarena on the cover. A 1990 U.S television mini-series about Camarena, starring Treat Williams
Treat Williams
Richard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...
and Steven Bauer
Steven Bauer
Steven Bauer is a Cuban-American actor. He is known for his role as Manny Ribera in the 1983 film Scarface, and his role on the bilingual PBS show Que Pasa, USA.-Early life:...
, were produced (Drug Wars: The Camarena Story
Drug Wars: The Camarena Story
Drug Wars: The Camarena Story is a 1990 TV mini-series based on Elaine Shannon’s book Desperados and the Time magazine article of the same name. It was directed by Brian Gibson and starred Steven Bauer, Miguel Ferrer, Benicio del Toro, Treat Williams and Craig T. Nelson...
) an unofficial record of the events that occurred.
In 2005, the History Channel produced a documentary entitled Heroes Under Fire: Righteous Vendetta that chronicles the events. It also features interviews with family members, DEA agents and others involved in the investigation.
Also in 2005, the book entitled ¿O Plata O Plomo? The abduction and murder of DEA Agent Enrique Camarena was released. It was written by DEA Resident Agent in Charge James H. Kuykendall (Ret.).
See also
- Jaime Jorge ZapataJaime Zapata (U.S. agent)Jaime Jorge Zapata was a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who was ambushed and shot dead by the Mexican criminal group Los Zetas in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. He was one of the two agents that was ambushed at a fake roadblock, known as a narco-blockade, in a part of the country that is...
- Humberto Álvarez MachaínHumberto Álvarez MachaínUnited States v. Alvarez-Machain, 504 U.S. 655 , was a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which held that the fact of respondent's forcible abduction does not prohibit his trial in a United States court for violations of this country's criminal laws. It re-confirmed the Ker-Frisbie...
- United States v. Alvarez-Machain
- Javier Barba-HernandezJavier Barba-HernandezJavier Barba-Hernandez was a former lawyer turned enforcer, hired by the Guadalajara Cartel to combat the Mexican Federal Judicial Police and United States Drug Enforcement Agency . Hernandez acted as a warlord for Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, Rafael Caro Quintero and Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo...
- Mexican Drug WarMexican Drug WarThe Mexican Drug War is an ongoing armed conflict taking place among rival drug cartels who fight each other for regional control, and Mexican government forces who seek to combat drug trafficking. However, the government's principal goal has been to put down the drug-related violence that was...
- Miguel Ángel Félix GallardoMiguel Ángel Félix GallardoMiguel Ángel Félix Gallardo is a convicted Mexican drug lord known as "El Padrino" who in the 1980s formed the Guadalajara Cartel and became the first drug czar in Mexico to control all illegal drug traffic in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico-U.S.A...
- Ernesto Fonseca CarrilloErnesto Fonseca CarrilloErnesto Fonseca Carrillo is a former Mexican narcotics trafficker, operating as leader of the Guadalajara Cartel alongside Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and Rafael Caro Quintero...
- Rafael Caro QuinteroRafael Caro QuinteroRafael Caro Quintero is an incarcerated Mexican drug lord born in La Noria, Badiraguato, Sinaloa. Quintero was a co-founder, with Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, of the Guadalajara Cartel and Sonora Cartel. Upon of the cartels' disintegration, its leaders were incorporated mostly into the Tijuana...
- Hispanics in the United States Marine CorpsHispanics in the United States Marine CorpsHispanics in the United States Marine Corps, such as Private France Silva who during the Boxer Rebellion became the first Marine of the thirteen Marines of Hispanic descent to be awarded the Medal of Honor, and Private First Class Guy Gabaldon who is credited with capturing over 1,000 enemy...
External links
- DEA Biography of Camarena
- Zaid, Mark S. "Military might versus sovereign right: the kidnapping of Dr. Humberto Alvarez-Machain and the resulting fallout." Houston Journal of International LawHouston Journal of International LawThe Houston Journal of International Law is a journal published by the University of Houston Law Center at the University of Houston. The journal, published three times per year, was established in 1978.-External links:*...
. Northern hemisphere Spring of 1997.
Further reading
- Andreas Lowenfeld, "Mexico and the United States, an Undiplomatic Murder," in Economist, 30 March 1985.
- Andreas Lowenfeld, "Kidnapping by Government Order: A Follow-Up," in American Journal of International Law 84 (July 1990): 712–716.
- U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Drug Enforcement Administration Reauthorization for Fiscal Year 1986: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Crime. May 1, 1985 (1986).