MEXICAN GOVERNOR AVOIDS PROSECUTORS

He Faces Charges Of Helping Drug Traffickers

MEXICO CITY -- Mario Villanueva, governor of Mexico's Quintana Roo
state, once again stood up federal prosecutors seeking to question him
about his alleged ties to drug
traffickers.

Mexican prosecutors are said to have at least two dozen drug-related
charges readied against Villanueva. To obtain an arrest warrant, they
must convince a judge the evidence is strong enough.

Villanueva spoke with prosecutors late last week in Chetumal, capital
of the tourist-rich state that includes Cancun. He was supposed to
be in Mexico City on Tuesday for another round of questioning at the
hands of prosecutors from the federal attorney general's office.

But by Tuesday evening, prosecutors emerged to say they had tired of
waiting for Villanueva, and did not know where he was. He also failed
to show up for an appointment with prosecutors in Mexico City last
week.

In Chetumal, officials said they were unaware of the governor's
whereabouts. They said he also had not shown up as scheduled in
Cancun on Tuesday night for a scheduled speech by that city's mayor.

Mexican officials would not speculate on what they might do next.
Radio Monitor in Mexico City reported that Villanueva had skipped the
meeting with prosecutors to huddle with officials from Mexico's
Interior Ministry.

Interior officials could not be reached for comment
Tuesday.

Sources familiar with the Villanueva investigation said Tuesday that
the governor was due to be charged with drug violations before April
5, his last day in office. The sources say prosecutors are racing to
wrap up the case, which would probably be filed formally in Chetumal
so they could make him the first Mexican governor to face drug charges
while in office.

For days the embattled governor has angrily accused the Mexican
federal government of political persecution because of his support for
the presidential candidacy of Manuel Bartlett, leader of an old-guard
faction within the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Bartlett is vying for the PRI's presidential nomination against rivals
said to be close to President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon.

Prosecutors depict Villanueva's defense as a smoke screen aimed at
distracting the public from what they have termed ``serious'' charges,
such as receiving gifts from drug dealers, making his official
aircraft hangar available to smugglers and doing business with friends
of what law enforcement officials call the gulf cartel.

The cartel, which is described as Mexico's largest and best organized,
is widely considered the leading shipper of cocaine into the United
States, moving about 15 tons a month. It is reportedly behind a recent
effort to make the coast around Cancun a haven for traffickers
moving cocaine north from Colombia.

Some law enforcement officials now describe Quintana Roo as a
narco-state, with drug money corrupting almost every level of government.

Quintana Roo's emergence as an avenue for smugglers is the reason law
enforcement officials in Washington think the drug war is going badly
in Mexico, according to U.S. congressional sources.

Regardless of how strong the evidence against Villanueva may be, a
U.S. congressional aide worries that efforts to prosecute him could
bog down in the attempt to obtain an arrest warrant. The aide, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, said that even Mexican prosecutors
fear the case might get lost in the country's notoriously corrupt
legal system.

Still, arresting Villanueva, just days after Mexican bankers entered
guilty pleas in a U.S. district court in Los Angeles in connection
with a drug-money laundering sting, would resonate well with U.S.
lawmakers still mulling President Clinton's decision to certify Mexico
as performing well in the war on drugs. Congress has yet to sign off
on Clinton's 1999 certification of Mexico's efforts, although
lawmakers opposed to his decision admit they lack the votes to
overturn it.

``The objective with the Villanueva case is to show the Mexican public
that we're not afraid to go after sitting governors or any high-level
official,'' said Guillermo Velasco, president of Mexicans United
Against Crime, a foundation started by business leaders to track the
government's work against organized crime.