Pubdate: Tue, 18 May 1999
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Author: Jo Ann Zuiga

OFFICIAL FROM MEXICO MEETS WITH POLICE

The consul general of Mexico in Houston met Monday with city police
officials to discuss the police shootings of three Mexican citizens,
incidents that caused some Mexican officials to consider warning
citizens not to travel to Houston.

Mexican Consul General Rodulfo Figueroa said HPD officials agreed to
give him those details of their investigations next week. He also said
he had offered to give a cultural sensitivity course at the police
academy.

Police spokesman Fred King would provide no details of Figueroa's
meeting with Assistant Chief J.L. Breshears, Capt. Richard Holland of
the homicide division and community liaison Faustino Perez.

"Discussion is ongoing, but we cannot reveal the substance," King
said.

Mexican government officials said last week that they were considering
warning their citizens to avoid traveling to Houston because they were
unhappy with the investigations into the shooting deaths of Eulogio
Perez last month, Pedro Oregon Navarro in July and Uvaldo Garcia
Armedariz in September 1997.

"I certainly hope we do not have to issue such an advisory," Figueroa
said.

Oregon was shot 12 times by Houston police in an aborted drug bust.
Oregon had a gun but tests showed it was not fired. Garcia was shot by
officers responding to a domestic disturbance call when he brandished
a chair and began charging. Perez was shot last month when he fired at
officers after being stopped, police said.

A senior government official in Mexico City, who asked not to be
identified, said the Mexican government has never considered issuing
such a travel warning before.

"We are upset certainly because there is a pattern emerging here," he
said. "We feel that this is our duty to put a warning to our citizens
who very often go to Houston."

Mexican officials said they don't want to issue such a warning because
it could affect business between Houston and Mexico, but they said
they would not tolerate Mexicans being shot by police.

Port of Houston Authority Commissioner Vidal Martinez said business
ties with Mexico might have already been hurt.

"Houston is being looked at as being anti-Latin or anti- Hispanic," he
said.

Tony Cantu, a Houston Latino activist, criticized Mexico's threat as
"political strategy for internal consumption in Mexico."

He noted Mexico's human-rights violations against its own citizens and
American tourists.

"Mexico doesn't have a leg to stand on and thus cannot accuse, nor has
any credibility to accuse, others," Cantu said.

City Council member Orlando Sanchez said his office is also reviewing
the matter.
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