Maybe in a local newspaper

there was an article on Red Ribbon Week, an occasional reference to a

drug-free rally, or a speech or program by a local official, a deputy

with a drug dog, or shiny decorated police car. But somehow in all the

positive messages Red Ribbon Week brings every year, the origination and

reality of what led to the founding of Red Ribbon Week in 1986 seems to

get lost. And it is probably the most important message of all, one of

personal sacrifice, devotion and duty to country, and willingness to sacrifice

all in its defense.

DEA Agent Enrique "Kiki"

Camarena never asked to be a hero. He only wanted to make difference.

Growing up poor in Mexico he wondered if he would get the chance. When

he was 9 years old, his family moved to the U.S. and joined the army of

migrant workers in the fields of Southern California.

As he picked peaches and plums,

he watched other children head off for school and longed for a seat on

the bus or classroom. When he got his chance, he made the best of it.

He learned English and became

a good student. He excelled in sports. He worked on his school yearbook.

He was even voted best all-around senior. Upon graduation from high school,

Kiki joined the U.S. Marine Corps and began a career in the service of

his adopted country.

Upon his discharge from the

USMC, he became a fireman, a police officer and then having seen many

of his friends succumb to the evils of illegal drugs, he then became a

Special Agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

He wanted to make a difference.

He had no way of knowing just how much of a difference he would make,

nor did he know the staggering and tragic price it would take on him,

his family, his friends, and his country.

In 1985, Kiki was posted to

the DEA office in Guadalajara, Mexico. He quickly made his mark. His drive

and devotion to duty was unshakable. His effectiveness in being able to

cultivate informants, seize drugs and make arrests gained him some powerful

enemies.

One particular seizure credited

to Kiki still stands as the single largest seizure of marijuana in U.S./Mexico

history. A field, thousands of acres in scope, whose poison was all destined

for the streets of our country. It was this case that finally caught the

attention of powerful Mexican drug dealers and corrupt Mexican police

and government officials in their employ.

In March of 1985, Kiki was

leaving the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara on his way to meet his wife

for lunch. A car of Mexican police officers, men he knew, worked with

and trusted, pulled up. They forced him into the car in haste and fled.

This was the last time anyone saw Kiki alive.

For days he was tortured for

information, given stimulants by a corrupt doctor so that his mutilated

and bruised body would not succumb to death so that the torture and interrogation

could continue. Death did not come quickly.

A month later, his mutilated

and decaying corpse was found on a ranch outside Guadalajara.

The barbaric and brutal nature

of his death would touch the nerve of an entire country. The brazen and

outright kidnapping, torture and murder of a U.S. agent in Mexico would

have ramifications for years to come and would change forever the nature

and scope of this country's drug enforcement strategy towards its

southern neighbor.

When Kiki was returned to the

U.S., his casket carried off a military aircraft by a USMC/DEA honor guard,

his family and friends wore red ribbons to symbolize their outrage at

his death.

As his story spread across

the U.S., others also bore red ribbons on their clothing, their homes,

their businesses and their schools, to show their outrage, and to remember

a fallen law officer killed at the hands of ruthless and barbaric drug

lords who operated with impunity inside Mexico, but in months and years

later, would feel the sting of American justice as many of them were arrested

and brought to trial in the U.S., over the objections of a corrupt Mexican

government.

So now you know the story of

the red ribbon. An act of Congress in 1986 declared one week in October

Red Ribbon Week, but it was an act of violence against one U.S. agent

in a foreign land that stirred defiance and outrage of an entire country

against drug trafficking and drug lords who seek to destroy us by importing

their poison to our streets.

So, next year when your kids

come home from school declaring that it is Red Ribbon Week and they have

to wear sun glasses to school to "shade out drugs," or a team

shirt to "team up against drugs," or a cap to "put a cap

on drugs," remind them of the story of DEA Agent Kiki Camarena, his

devotion to duty and country, and how all he wanted to do was make a difference,

and at a terrible price, became a hero.

Frank Hidalgo

Fayetteville, Ga.

[Hidalgo is a DEA agent in

the Atlanta Field Office and a resident of Fayetteville.]