Pubdate: Sun, 20 Jan 2002 Source: Seattle Times (WA) Copyright: 2002 The Seattle Times Company Contact: http://www.seattletimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409 Author: Tim Weiner U.S. BAFFLED AS MEXICO BARS EXTRADITIONS MEXICO CITY - Mexico's Supreme Court has blocked the extradition of criminal suspects facing life sentences in the United States, confounding U.S. authorities seeking to convict defendants accused of being cocaine kingpins and killers. The ruling, handed down in October but published in full last month, has stopped the extradition of more than 70 high-profile defendants. The decision is rooted in Mexico's constitution, which says that all people are capable of rehabilitation. A life sentence, the court ruled, flies in the face of that concept. The maximum prison sentence in Mexico is 40 years, although in certain cases a 60-year term may be imposed. The prisoners for whom extradition has been barred include a former state governor, Mario Villanueva, indicted on charges of smuggling 200 tons of cocaine into the U.S. Another is Augustin Vazquez Mendoza, who was on the FBI's list of the 10 most-wanted fugitives, charged with the 1994 slaying of an undercover drug-enforcement officer in Arizona. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spent six years and more than $1 million pursuing Vazquez before his arrest in July 2000. Now it appears that, in order to extradite him, Arizona may have to dismiss the murder case and try him on lesser charges, said law- enforcement officials in Mexico. Similarly, the indictment against Villanueva, a fugitive for two years before his arrest in May, will have to be redrawn if he is ever to face justice in the United States, officials said. No easy way out of the legal situation exists, they said. The court, in a 6-2 ruling, said a life sentence negated the Mexican constitution's provisions for rehabilitation. "It would be absurd to hope to rehabilitate the criminal if there were no chance of his returning to society," Justice Roman Palacios wrote for the majority. Because the decision is based on Mexico's constitution, it cannot be changed by Congress or presidential order. Either the United States and Mexico must rewrite their extradition treaties - which could take years - or prosecutors must rethink the severity of the penalties the defendants face. The decision was a bitter pill for U.S. law-enforcement officials, who cite the Villanueva and Vazquez cases as crucial for establishing a foundation of justice in matters involving the two countries. Villanueva, the governor of the state of Quintana Roo from 1993 to 1999, is the highest-ranking Latin American politician to face drug charges filed in a U.S. court since the arrest of Gen. Manuel Noriega, the dictator of Panama, in 1989. Villanueva stands accused of working with traffickers to import cocaine with a wholesale value of at least $2 billion into the United States, taking a $500,000 bribe for every major shipment that passed through his state in the mid-1990s. The charges against him filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan - two counts of running a "continuing criminal enterprise" - carry a maximum sentence of life in prison for each charge and a $4 million fine. Law-enforcement officials in Mexico said the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan might have to seek a new indictment on lesser charges, carrying a maximum 20-year sentence, against Villanueva, who is 55 and is imprisoned near Mexico City. Vazquez, 31, is charged as the mastermind in the 1994 killing of Richard Fass, a U.S. DEA agent working undercover, in Glendale, Ariz. The state of Arizona charges that Vazquez ordered that Fass be killed to recoup a 22-pound shipment of methamphetamine and the $160,000 that Fass had brought along to pay for it. After six years as a fugitive, Vazquez was arrested by Mexican authorities 18 months ago. But last week, a judge ruled that the recent Mexican Supreme Court decision barred his extradition. Law-enforcement officials in Mexico City say that leaves Arizona with two hard choices if it wants to try Vazquez: drop the murder charge or promise Mexico that he will receive a fixed sentence of 60 years or less if convicted. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh