Enrique Camarena never asked to be a hero. In 1985, when DEA agent Kiki Camarena was murdered by drug dealers in Mexico, they ended his life but not his dream. Here is Kiki's story.
Growing up in a dirt-floored house in Mexico, Enrique Camarena wanted to make a difference. When he was little, he said, "I'm going to be a policeman when I grow up." At nine, Kiki moved with his family to the United States to pick fruit.
After excelling in high school, Kiki faced a critical turning point. His friends were headed for trouble, and he had to decide whether he wanted to follow them into a life of crime and
drugs. The deeply engrained desire to make a difference won out, and Kiki opted to stay straight, working his way through college and earning a degree in criminal justice.
Following stints in the Marines and the police force, Kiki joined the DEA. It was the best way he knew to stop drugs and to help people he cared about. His mother, concerned about dangers inherent in his job, tried to talk him out of it. "I can't not do this," he told her. "I'm only one person, but I want to make a difference." In early 1985, the DEA sent Kiki to work undercover in Mexico. For weeks he lived among the drug cartel, gathering information and evidence. He was ready to wrap up his assignment when his identity was discovered. He was kidnapped and tortured to death.
To honor his memory, and to show that they would continue his fight against illegal drugs, friends and neighbors wore red badges of satin. Then parents who had come together in local coalitions to fight the drug problem took Kiki as their model, embracing his belief that one person can make a difference, and adopting his symbol--the red ribbon--as their own.
From this grassroots beginning grew National Family Partnership, a network of community groups united under one mission: to promote healthy, drug-free youth through prevention and education.
