MEXICO REELING OVER SUICIDE OF TOP AIDE, $700,000 STASH

Scandal Harms Reputation Of Trusted Attorney General

Mexico City - A top aide to the attorney general is found slumped over the
wheel of his car, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His
corruption-busting boss is forced to admit that his right-hand man had
secretly stashed away a $700,000 fortune. In a suicide note, the aide
acknowledges that the money ``is difficult to explain.''

The suicide of Juan Manuel Izabal on Wednesday shocked even Mexicans
accustomed to the frequent drug-payoff scandals that have rocked the
Justice Ministry. It was especially damaging to Attorney General Jorge
Madrazo Cuellar, one of the most trusted figures of U.S. anti-narcotics
officials, who has tried to implement broad anti-corruption programs.

Initial investigations yesterday suggested that Izabal's fortune came from
unscrupulous deals, not narcotics. But commentators said the scandal showed
that corruption is so profound in Mexico that it frustrated even top
officials in the government of President Ernesto Zedillo who are dedicated
to combating it.

``The president has had the will to combat corruption. But at the end of
his six years (in office), you see he hasn't been able to,'' said Francisco
Molina, a former top drug official who is now a senator for the opposition
National Action Party, or PAN.

Izabal, the top administrative official in the Justice Ministry, was found
dead just a few blocks from his home in southern Mexico City.

At first, the sensational death of such a prominent figure raised
speculation of an assassination. But late Wednesday night, Madrazo said
that investigators had found two suicide notes in Izabal's clothes. In one,
the dead official acknowledged to his wife that he had stockpiled a large
amount of money.

The money, Izabal wrote, was from business deals, not drugs. But,
suggesting that a scandal was about to break, he wrote: ``I don't want you
or the children to pass through this hell.''

The suicide note was just one clue that emerged in what could turn out to
be the biggest corruption scandal in the Justice Ministry since the 1997
arrest of Mexico's anti-drug czar, Gen. Jose de Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, on
charges of aiding narcotics kingpins.

Officials first got wind Tuesday night of the impending scandal, Madrazo
said. Local Citibank officials had called him requesting an urgent meeting
about a senior official's bank account, he said. Madrazo gave the bankers a
noon appointment the next day and immediately began investigating which of
his employees was a client of the bank.

The next morning, Izabal's body was discovered, shot once in the head, with
a .38-caliber Beretta pistol in his hand.

Hours later, the bankers revealed what had driven Izabal to desperation.

Recently, the bank had sent Izabal three notices asking him to claim his
safe-deposit box from a Citibank branch that was scheduled to close, the
officials said, according to Madrazo. When he didn't respond, the officials
opened the box.

Inside, they found a fortune: $700,000 in U.S. and Mexican money, Madrazo said.

On Tuesday morning, Izabal finally turned up at the bank to claim the box,
Madrazo said. But it was too late: Bank officials told him they had decided
to inform the Justice Ministry about the contents.

In the suicide note to his wife, Izabal said: ``You are going to learn
about things you don't know that will disappoint you. Forgive me. The
safe-deposit boxes don't just have documents, as I told you; there is also
money that is difficult to explain. It's the result of business deals that I
have done, but that would not be understood, given my position as a civil
servant.''