MEXICO CITY (AP) – One day after Mexico angered U.S. officials by publishing an entire 751-page U.S. case file against former Secretary of Defense Salvador Cienfuegos, the Mexican prosecutors who acquitted him released their own version – but with so many pages it was completely blacked out it was almost impossible to tell what they found.
The report, released Sunday by the Mexican Attorney General, included a 226-page record with each page broken, followed shortly after by a 275-page record with black-cut pages.
In the few sections with less editing, all names and images were made black.
Officials have apparently struggled to damage the reputation of the justice system after prosecutors took just five days to completely exempt retired General Cienfuegos from U.S. allegations, backed by years of investigation, that he was assisting drug dealers in exchange for bribes.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador dismissed the US case as “fabricated” on Saturday and his government released the documentation sent by US prosecutors when they released Cienfuegos as a diplomatic concession to Mexico and sent him home to investigate.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the release of the full report of evidence violated a legal aid treaty and questioned whether the U.S. could continue to share information.
The further embittered security relations strained by the Mexican government’s decision to restrict US agents and waive their immunity even after Cienfuegos returned home, rather than being tried in the US
The president said that although many Mexicans regarded U.S. courts as “good judges, flawless … in this case, with all due respect, those who conducted this investigation did not act professionally.”
In the recently released Mexican report, it appears that there was little visible to ask the military to investigate whether the accusations were credible, relying on what Cienfuegos officially declared in revenue.
One of the few readable documents, for example, is a report from an Army communications officer (name redirected) stating that no Army BlackBerries were officially assigned to Cienfuegos or anyone else.
The 751-page file that U.S. authorities shared with Mexico consists largely of intercepted messages from BlackBerry between merchants who have since been killed, describing the affair with a person who identifies them as Cienfuegos, who often refers to him nicknamed ‘The Godfather’.
López Obrador relied heavily on the military for a wide range of projects far beyond security, and his government apparently responded to military outrage over the arrest of Cienfuegos, complaining that they had not been adequately informed about the matter by U.S. officials.
Cienfuegos was arrested in Los Angeles in October, but the U.S. government dropped its charges against him in November after Mexican officials threatened to restrict U.S. agents.
The released U.S. documents contain alleged intercepted text messages between the leader of the H-2 cartel based in the state of Nayarit on the Pacific Ocean and a top assistant, who allegedly served as an intermediary with the general.
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.