ROBERTO HERNANDEZ, ECONOMIC POWER, AND NARCO-POLITICS

The Dirty War Against Por Esto!

Accused by the press that has put him under the searchlights of drug
trafficking, Roberto Hernandez Ramirez, the magnate that came from nowhere
during the presidential term of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, has taken to the
courts of the United States using all his economic power, through Banamex,
to sue the Yucatan journalist Mario R. Menendez Rodriguez, editor of the
daily Por Esto!, one of the most influential of the Southeast and Caribbean
of our country.

Four years ago the first journalistic accusation surged that involved the
preferred banker of Salinismo with the narco. Mario R. Menendez Rodriguez is
one of the most combative journalists of recent decades. Founder of the
celebrated magazine Por Que?, it was one of the most essential readings in
political and university circles in the 1960s. It defined an epoch through
its coverage of the guerrilla in Mexico, in the times of Lucio Cabanas and
Genaro Vasquez.

Of Yucateco origin and member of a known family of journalists, Mario
Menendez was exiled and after some years began a new journalistic project in
his native state from where he practices journalism without concessions.

In the last four years the reports published in the pages of Por Esto! have
bothered Roberto Hernandez, who has tried to detour the case toward Banamex
to try and evade his presumed responsibility in the accusations against him.
La Crisis interviewed Mario R. Menendez Rodriguez, publisher of Por Esto!,
to explore more deeply the lawsuit that the Banamex lawyers filed in the
United States against the Yucateco journalist.

The Accusation

Q. Mario, when did this war begin?

A. In 1997, we published a series of reports with documents, testimonies,
and proofs. We published photos of shark boats, the cocaine they brought,
all the details. But we accused Roberto Hernandez Ramirez and not Banamex.
Hernandez tries to protect himself putting his bank in front of him and we
accused him directly. We made the accusation and we presented the evidences
that we published and offered our help to the Federal Prosecutor to
investigate the matter. If it had been brought to a legal process, we felt
we could help.

Roberto Hernandez, for his part, tried to accuse me of having committed a
crime because I didn't file a legal complaint about the drugs before
publishing the story. The problem is that when I presented the evidences it
was because the Army had already verified it, with the Navy and Air Force,
who confirmed that everything we discovered was real and had occurred in the
properties of Roberto Hernandez. For this he also accused me of trespassing.
But he didn't realize that to accuse me of trespass was an acknowledgement
that, yes, the drugs were on his property.

Clearly, Roberto Hernandez had all the backing of President Zedillo who
joined with him and ordered that the Attorney General would be an instrument
at the service of Hernandez. Then came hits from different angles. The
first, through the Attorney General, the second through the Interior
Ministry and then the Office of Books and Magazines wanted to revoke my
journalistic license and that of the newspaper.

Q. What Interior Minister ordered this action?

A. It was Emilio Chuayffet.

Q. And what happened later with Chuayffet?

A. He later spoke with me and recognized that they had acted arbitrarily. He
told me he had received the order directly from Zedillo and that he couldn't
do anything about it. This he told me word for word, exactly as I am telling
you. We then responded legally, administratively and politically to the
attempt to take away our license and the title of the newspaper.

Q. Without a doubt, the government's seige was intense.

A. In effect, no one in Mexico City - All this was done from the Federal
District without our knowing it - not one federal judge wanted to accept
their accusations and order an arrest warrant against me. They were then
denied by one and had to go to state court in Quintana Roo.

Q. What happened then?

A. From the Attorney General's office, Jorge Madrazo spoke with the
governor, Mario Villanueva, and made him see that it would be convenient
that Judge Traconis would be given this case to grant the arrest warrant.
And this was seen in the Attorney General's office as an act of cooperation
between the government of Quintana Roo with the Attorney General to soften
their problems. There, Villanueva ordered the Judge and it was done, the
arrest warrant was issued.

We must remember that Jorge Madrazo Cuellar always filtered information to
the media and this case was no exception. He sent copies of the arrest
warrant against me to newspapers. Someone in the daily Reforma called me by
telephone and asked me if I knew about the arrest warrant against me they
were talking about. That's when I found out and I asked him the favor of
sending me, by fax, the supposed arrest warrant. The reporters of that daily
asked me to to make a statement and I answered them that I am a persecuted
target, but that I am also a journalist. They understood and I offered to
send them what I published the next day.

This arrest warrant was ordered on the eve of President William Clinton's
visit to Yucatan. During this visit we published four supplements beginning
on February 14, 1999, when Clinton arrived, and we accused the president of
the United States of signing an anti-drug agreement with the Mexican
government precisely in one of the haciendas of the banker that was accused
by us of drug trafficking.

Q. And after that, what happened?

A. The Federal Court issued an order protecting us from any arrest warrant
and the case passed into the hands of the Quintana Roo Supreme Court, where
Judge Victor Manuel Echeverria Tum ruled in September of 1999 in our favor
and completely overturned the case against Roberto Hernandez whose lawyers
were all from Banamex.

In the decision by Judge Echeverria Tum it was ruled that at no moment could
the journalist Menendez be found guilty of libel because all the accusations
were based on facts, it wasn't for nothing that Hernandez was called a
narco-trafficker. His second point was that Roberto Hernandez didn't even
appear as a party to the charges.

Q. Why?

A. Zedillo's government wanted to protect him. They put Banamex in front of
him to make the complaint. Roberto Hernandez has never appeared in any of
the four legal actions against me for the same crime of libel. It's only
Banamex that shows its face. Clearly, when Banamex does something publicly
it is meant to place the entire weight of the Mexican economy over the
scales of justice. But the judge said Banamex isn't being accused here. The
one who is accused is Roberto Hernandez whose properties were found with
cocaine. All of this is confirmed by the Air Force, thus, there is no
possibility of libel.

They appealed the judge's decision and the case went to a single judge of
the Quintana Roo Supreme Court. Judge Castro Rios reiterated and upheld the
decision by Judge Echeverria Tum in every section and there the first
chapter closed.

Act Two

Mario R. Menendez Rodriguez tells of the attacks by the lawyers of Roberto
Hernandez, using his immeasurable economic power.

The editor of the daily Por Esto! relates how he was invited to give a
series of conferences at Columbia University and in front of students of
this academic institution repeated exactly what he had published in the
pages of Por Esto! "Nothing more was said there than was we said in our
criminal accusation against Roberto Hernandez," explains Menendez. "I
explain that because we had already been judged in this case and the
decision of the judge is the following: there is no libel because everything
is based on real facts."

Q. At the University did you give a conference on investigative journalism?

A. Effectively, but it was in the Law School and open to he public. You can
imagine, "in the company of Jesus," all the types of people that were there
and because they were there, the exposition was made with great care. We
returned and we did not know that a new case against us had already been
initiated in Quintana Roo, but below the strict control of the Attorney
General.

And how did we find this out? By surprise because one day an ex waiter, his
wife and mother in law, people who had worked in the Casa Maya hotel in the
Hotel Zone of Cancun, were found brutally tortured. The family was violently
assassinated, the waiter's body was burned, and over his cadaver there was a
card from the Attorney General's office belonging to Attorney Eslava,
assistant attorney general at the time. It said that although the courts
already had favored me they were going to try and get me. We got a hold of
this document. We published this document and then we said that they were
preparing something. Then came the second accusation against me by Banamex.
It's always the bank. Roberto Hernandez never appears for any of it and the
charge is for exactly the same alleged crimes: libel and crimes against the
Press Law.

These activities by the Attorney General were being conducted under total
secrecy. We went to inaugurate the offices of Por Esto! of Quintana Roo on
September 8. Ten days before that there had been a shooting by gunmen
against the newspaper building and five of the six gunmen were arrested.
They found them with the guns in their hands, guns of exclusive use of the
Army, with the cocaine that they had in the same car. The next day they were
set free. The provocation was too obvious because how is it possible that
you are going to arrest five men with the evidence in their hands, who shot
against a newspaper and the next day they are released?

Q. What attitude did you take in the face of these facts?

A. I asked my children to go to the courts and before we forget the facts to
denounce these arbitrary actions by the Attorney General that refused to
prosecute these gunmen who were dedicated to the distribution and sale of
drugs in the Hotel Zone that is under the control of the regional
representative of the Attorney General. He set them free immediately and
sources in the courts informed us that another provocation was being planned
exactly on the day that we would inaugurate our offices. All the usual
lawyers for Banamex were there with all the arrogance that characterizes
them of offering money, blank checks, with the goal that already you can
imagine. At the same time a special group of police from the Attorney
General's office that dress in black, wearing masks and everything ready to
kidnap me.

When they told me about all this I could not cancel or fail to attend the
inauguration of the new offices. I went there to speak. A federal judge gave
us an order in Merida protecting us from arrest, but he told me that he
could not believe what they were daring to do. But in the end they gave me
the protection order and I went to Cancun on Thursday night. I was
accompanied by my children, well protected, and from Friday morning to noon
or one in the afternoon, the federal judge received three calls from
Attorney General Jorge Madrazo Cuellar demanding that he order my arrest.

Q. It was Jorge Madrazo who personally made the call?

A. Exactly as you are hearing it because, at the courthouse, the entire
world heard it, even how the judge got angry and told him that if he
continued mocking the law he would make a ruling against the Attorney
General. Then nothing happened. And later a mysterious call came from
(President Zedillo's Personal Secretary) Libano Saenz. He asked the judge if
he could please erase the file so that the charges could be made again, and
the judge refused that also and his decision was in my favor.

They were more irritated than ever over this situation and they appealed to
the Federal Circuit Court Judge in Merida, who also ruled in my favor and
there the story ended.

Act Three

Mario R. Menendez tells La Crisis that the team of lawyers of Roberto
Hernandez filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of New York, in the name of
Banamex, over what he said in the Columbia University conference.

"I had the good luck that my case was on the Internet," jokes the veteran
journalist, referring to, "Alberto Giordano who has an Internet site named
Narco News and who also is accused by Banamex's lawyers for having spoken
about me." "Recently, the case was made known in the Supreme Court in detail
and it appeared on the Internet. In this moment the famous attorney Martin
Garbus saw the problem and called me in Merida on the telephone and said he
wanted to defend me. I asked him why he wanted to defend me and he answered
that he believed in what I was doing and when we spoke personally he would
tell me some other things.

When I was with Martin Garbus, I realized that this man is a social fighter,
a champion in the fight for the defense of individual liberty and human
rights in the United States. He has won outstanding battles. He was one of
the people who participated in the elaboration of the new constitution of
Czechoslovakia. He came from Jewish parents who had been in concentration
camps. I think his mother died in one of them. He has books that tell it
all; Heroes and Traitors, and another is Tough Talk, where he defends famous
journalists for their criticisms of the North American government who were
sued in New York, I don't remember all the details right now.

Q. What's happening right now in the United States courts?

A. Our part is to collect the greatest quantity of documents and proofs
possible that the other side has no case. What is significant is that the
consortium that defends Roberto Hernandez is dedicated to lobbying. His
lawyers are meddling in the Senate and the House of Representatives to
obtain gifts for governments and make laws. It's seat is in Washington and
they also have argued very important cases in the defense of people accused
of drug trafficking and they also participated in the defense of the law
that was imposed in Colombia with the participation of the US government
that sent the marines to this South American country.

Martin Garbus tells me that it will be very difficult for these poor souls
to succeed in their effort and they know it. They never imagined that I
would go as high as the Supreme Court to defend myself.

Q. Mario, what's going to happen with the critical press of our country?

A. It depends on us. If we fold our hands - and I don't only refer to me
personally - if we who fight for Authentic Journalism fold our hands or let
ourselves be seduced by X offer or what you want, then every day the space
of critical journalism will be reduced. This is already our question. But if
we began alone in this fight four years ago, they did everything up to what
you cannot imagine against us. I'm not referring to slander, to libel, to
the evil campaigns of individuals, of spiritually small people like this
poor Fernandez Menendez, the Argentine or Chilean badly born, who is a poor
devil, he already doesn't worry us. What concerns us to continue forward.

What I can tell you is that the uniting power of the newspaper and its
greatest capital are its credibility, trust and the truth that the people
want. This is the biggest prize that we can aspire to as journalists. As
public servants we have a vocation of service. We don't speak for the sake
of speaking. When we spin the wheel it is a very committed journalism.

Q. Roberto Hernandez is a friend of Vicente Fox. What do you expect from
this?

A. That's what Roberto Hernandez says.

Q. Is there any perception that Roberto Hernandez will use his relation with
Fox that he says he has to destroy your newspaper?

A. Well, he used his relationship with Zedillo to the maximum, to the
absolute ultimate to break my soul. He is an individual who is not capable
of publicly confronting an accusation of this type, of presenting himself in
a public hearing. Por Esto! presented itself. But Roberto Hernandez always
seeks to hide behind the skirt of a banking institution and this says it
all, no?

Roberto Hernandez is an individual without scruples. Recall that he was one
of the 38 stockbrokers who did not hesitate to destroy millions of Mexican
families in the crash of the stock exchange. Neither did he have any
scruples to pass the plate in the house of Ortiz Mena where they collected
$750 million dollars (for the PRI campaign). Nor is it any secret how he
purchased Banamex. Or how the National Palace mysteriously set on fire in
the area precisely where the records of the bank sales were kept. This says
a lot about a person who couldn't afford a credit card in 1980. And seven
years later he appeared, as if by magic, with a fortune that counted him
among the 300 wealthiest people in the world. And later he jumped from
Salinas and went with Zedillo. And from Zedillo he goes to Fox. Okay. If Fox
lets himself be seduced also, this will be Fox's problem. We are not going
to change our journalistic mission. We are going to continue forward.

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