MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of fabricating drug trafficking charges against the country’s former defense secretary, even though his government has published hundreds of pages of U.S. files claiming detailed evidence. of the man shows. close ties with a drug gang.
The decision to expose U.S. prosecutors on Friday while clearing a top official of charges contributes to a crisis in security cooperation for the incoming government of President-elect Joe Biden.
It follows the Mexican government’s decision to restrict U.S. agents and waive their immunity, apparently a slap in the face after U.S. efforts to appease Mexico by releasing retired General Salvador Cienfuegos to be tried in Mexico .
The U.S. Department of Justice said it was “deeply disappointed” with the closure of the case against Cienfuegos. It also said the publication of the evidence was in violation of a legal aid treaty and questioned whether the US could continue to share information.
It is also said that the published material shows the strength of the evidence against Cienfuegos.
López Obrador relied heavily on the military for a wide range of projects that are far beyond security. In this case, he said that although many Mexicans regard U.S. courts as “the good judges, faultless … in this case, with all due respect, those who conducted this investigation did not act professionally.”
His government then published a 751-page file shared by the U.S. authorities in support of what they intended to be Mexican persecution of Cienfuegos. Independent exchange of Blackberry messengers between merchants killed since then has been marked: “Shared by court order, not for further distribution.”
It was not immediately clear whether the release of the documents would affect other U.S. court cases.
The US government dropped its charges against Cienfuegos in a diplomatic concession to Mexico in November and sent him home, where he was immediately released.
López Obrador said on Friday that Mexican prosecutors dropped the case because the evidence shared by the United States has no value in proving that he committed any crime.
“Why did they do the investigation like that?” López Obrador said. “Without support, without proof?”
The released documents contain alleged intercepted text messages between the leader of the H-2 cartel based in the Pacific coastal state of Nayarit and a top assistant, who allegedly served as an intermediary with the general, who is often referred to as’ The Godfather ‘A at one point as’ Salvador Sinfuego Sepeda. ‘
In one exchange, Daniel Silva Garate told his boss, Juan Francisco Patrón Sánchez, that he had been picked up by men in short, military hairstyles and taken to Mexico City’s Department of Defense headquarters for a meeting with ‘The Godfather’ . ”
Silva-Garate told his boss that the “The Godfather” had told him, “Now we’re going to do great things with you … that what you did is short-lived.”
Patrón Sanchez says he wants unmolested routes to return drugs from Colombia and Silva Garate texts: ‘He says that as long as he is here, you will be free … that they will never carry out strong operations’, or raids.
Silva Garate told his boss that the ‘The Godfather’ told him: ‘You can sleep peacefully, no surgery will affect you.’
Other exchanges describe that The Godfather allegedly offered to arrange a boat to transport drugs, introduce the dealers to other officials, and admit that they had helped other people in the past.
At his daily news conference on Friday, López Obrador, who has made the fight against corruption a theme of his government, insisted that his government would not cover up anyone.
“We are not going to think about crimes. We are not going to make up anything, ”he said. “We must act on the basis of the facts, the evidence, the reality.”
The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a statement saying it is still possible to prosecute Cienfuegos if Mexico does not do so. And in a statement Thursday night, Mexico’s attorney general went further than announcing that it would close the case by clearing the general.
“General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda never had a meeting with the criminal organization that was investigated by US authorities, and that he also never had any communication with them, nor did he take actions to protect or protect those individuals. does not help, “the office said in a statement.
Cienfuegos is said to have no illegal or abnormal income, nor has any evidence been found that he issued an order to benefit the criminal group concerned. ‘
Gladys McCormick, an associate professor of history at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, said the only surprise was that Mexico did not make a better performance of Cienfuegos.
“One would think they would at least have carried out a semblance of an investigation, even if it was just to illustrate the window covering that the rule of law exists,” McCormick said. “From the Mexican side, this indicates the deep control that the military has as an institution in power.”
López Obrador has given the military more responsibility than any president in recent history, and relies on building massive infrastructure projects and distributing the COVID-19 vaccine, in addition to extensive security responsibilities.
Cienfuegos was arrested after being secretly charged by a federal jury in New York in 2019. He is accused of conspiring with the H-2 cartel to smuggle thousands of kilos of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana while he was secretary of defense from 2012. until 2018.
Although the US sent Cienfuegos home, the Congress in Mexico passed a law a few weeks later that would restrict U.S. agents in Mexico and remove their diplomatic immunity.
Mike Vigil, the former head of international operations of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the cleaning of Cienfuegos “could be the straw that broke the camel’s back to the cooperation between the US and Mexico in anti-drug activities.”
“It was predetermined that Mexican justice would not proceed with the prosecution of General Cienfuegos,” Vigil said. ‘It will significantly tarnish the integrity of his legal system and despite the political rhetoric of wanting to eliminate corruption, this is obviously not the case. The rule of law has been significantly violated. ”
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AP author E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City contributed to this report.