THE BANAMEX-PRESS CASE: NARCO POLITICS ON TRIAL

Roberto Hernandez Ramirez, president of Banamex, seeks to "bury" the
accusations that have been published in various media about him for drug
trafficking and money laundering in legal paperwork and "drown them,"
through an expensive trial in New York, says Al Giordano, editor of The
Narco News Bulletin and one of the journalists sued by the banker in the New
York Supreme Court.

More than trying to "restore" the deteriorated image of the bank, as he
claims in his lawsuit, what the Banamex owner wants "is to silence us and
discredit us in order to discredit the published accusations, since he
already doesn't have the elements to refute the facts upon which the reports
that accused him were based," said that journalist.

Tireless investigator, passionate opponent of the war on drugs, enthusiastic
promoter of social causes, Giordano declined to speak of the strategies that
he will use in his defense, but he declares himself openly optimistic of the
results that this trial will bring.

He warns that the case is going to be politicized, "because we have all the
elements for that: international narco-trafficking, money-laundering,
government persecution against journalists and photographs of cocaine
containers in the pristine coastal lands of Quintana Roo that belong to the
banker."

"The Banamex owner wanted to silence us," he said, "and what he is going to
succeed at doing is to place the narco-system and its bastard child, the war
on drugs, in the seat of the accused."

"Roberto Hernandez has already lost in advance because he has failed to
silence us," he emphasized.

Soon, the parties will begin shooting, and to start it all off, Giordano
notified Banamex defender Tom McLish by email of the adjournment of the
pre-trial conference, ordered by a judge, from January 25th to March 8th.

In a missive infused with irony, in which he represented himself as his own
attorney, the journalist accepted service of the bank's lawsuit against him
and asked the accusing side for 90 days to respond.

"Roberto Hernandez's gamble was to sue us in order to cost us money that we
clearly don't have," said the former political reporter of the Boston
Phoenix newspaper, a media that he left to dedicate himself to report on the
absurdities and abuses of the war on drugs in Latin America.

"If Roberto Hernandez's desire was to silence us he has failed because
neither don Mario nor I are the type of people to give up in the face of
harassment. To the contrary, here we go into the fight," he advised.

He stressed that the banker knows that neither of the journalists has the
money needed to mount a defenseto this lawsuit. "He knows it, because he has
used companies like DSFX, an espionage firm, to investigate us."

And he added: "He knows perfectly well that I don't earn enough money to
live in New York. He knows that Mario Renato Menendez and Por Esto! sell ads
for pesos and he wants to obligate them to pay for a legal defense in
dollars."

"This lawsuit is about harassment and intimidation. The fact that to defend
oneself from any lawsuit in New York costs hundreds of thousands of
dollars," he said, adding that the cost of court documents alone is going to
cost him around $100,000.

To be able to mount an adequate defense, he explained, "we need the
transcripts of all the depositions and they cost about $500 dollars apiece,
and if they have to be translated from Spanish, the price doubles. To this
must be added the legal fees, the trips to New York, etcetera."

And why hasn't Banamex sued media like El Universal, AP, the Wall Street
Journal, the Boston Phoenix or the Village Voice that published the same
facts? "Because they know they have a weak case and anyone with a minimum
capacity to pay for a legal defense can prove it."

Also, he recalls a series of facts that demonstrate the kind of web that the
Banamex owner is weaving to silence the two journalists: "The lawsuit in New
York was filed on August 9th and some days later, on August 24th, the
Mexican Attorney General brought charges against Mario Renato Menendez.
Their plan was to obtain a secret arrest warrant, to arrest the Por Esto!
editor in Cancun on September 8th and the next day announce the lawsuit in
the Big Apple."

"I think it was a huge surprise for Roberto Hernandez's lawyers that an
attorney like Martin Garbus, who has defended Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel,
Henry Miller and many others, appeared in the defense of our case."

He outlines that Garbus has defended twenty cases before the US Supreme
Court, "and has not lost a single one."

Another attorney that may join the defense is Tom Lesser, friend of Al
Giordano, who has so far given legal advice, and is known for his talent at
politicizing cases like this one.

But the most appetizing bite in this entire buffet of expensive plates is
the possibility of putting the war on drugs in the seat of the accused.

Al Giordano explains: "In the United States, to win a lawsuit for libel,
they need to prove malice on the part of the accused. As I see things going,
I think that don Mario and I might spend days and days in the witness chair
to explain all that we knew about this theme. In this sense, a lot of
information that is unknown or ignored about drug trafficking and its
complicities is going to come to light in New York."

Are you disposed to come to a legal agreement with Banamex outside the court
if Roberto Hernandez solicits that at some point?

"No deals: I don't make deals with this kind of people. I have to preserve
my integrity."

But not all is honey over pancakes. Al Giordano recognizes that since this
matter of the lawsuit began he has spent hours and hours preparing his
defense and has been obligated to leave things that before seemed
fundamental on the side. But not even that seems to deter his steel will to
mount his defense with all the moral authority that he has earned through an
impeccable journalistic career.
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