U.S., Mexican Envoys Put Different Face on Border Shooting : Gavin Calls Shooting ‘Lamentable,’ but Feels Positive Relationship Will Survive

American Ambassador to Mexico John Gavin said Thursday that the recent shooting of a 12-year-old Mexican boy by a U.S. Border Patrol agent was a “lamentable case,” but added that it was only one incident “compared to the positive and good” relationship that exists between the two countries.

“It’s a lamentable case. It’s a very sorry situation,” Gavin said at an impromptu press conference after his luncheon speech to members of the San Diego County Bar Assn.

Gavin said he was not aware that Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller on Wednesday declined to prosecute the Border Patrol officer who shot the Mexican youth. He said, however, that other federal agencies were investigating the incident. He would not name the agencies.

“We are looking at a very few items compared with the positive and good” relationship that the two countries have developed, Gavin said.

“Millions of people cross that border every year, and Mexico is our third-largest trading partner,” he said. The border shooting would not strain relationships between Mexico and the United States because, Gavin said, “I think our relationship is excellent. It is important that we continue to deal with each other positively and with mutual respect.”

People in border towns live and conduct business with each other on a daily basis, and their success in doing so is proof that both countries enjoy good relations, he said.

“The line that separates them is simply a legal one,” Gavin said. “I think that (officials in) Washington and Mexico City could take lessons from the people who live on the border.”

The problem of Mexican sewage flowing across the border into San Diego should be resolved with the construction of a sewage treatment plant in Tijuana, Gavin said. A 1983 agreement signed in La Paz, Mexico, by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Miguel de la Madrid is another attempt to help the two governments resolve border environmental problems, he said.

Gavin pointed to the joint efforts to stop the flow of illegal drugs entering the United States as another example of the cooperation that exists between the two countries.

Much of the cocaine, heroin and marijuana that enters the United States comes through Mexico, Gavin said. But the problem is not confined to Mexico, since the United States “has the lion’s share of the narcotics market.” Corruption is not just on the southern side of the border, he said: “We suffer from it, too.”

The drug problem is a “mutual problem,” Gavin said, and “no amount of money or programs will solve this problem unless there is a national commitment between both countries to fight it.”

Gavin said neither Mexico nor the United States will profit by trying to make the other a “whipping boy.” Both countries must work to ensure that their relationship is “strong, free and profitable.”