MEXICO RESPONDS

The Feb. 13 news story "Mexico Freed Drug Suspect, Sources Say" damages the
reputation of the Attorney General's Office of Mexico by including
incorrect information.

No one from the Attorney General's Office, including members of its
Specialized Unit Against Organized Crime, detained Humberto Garcia Abrego
on Oct. 18, 1998, in San Miguel Allende. Nobody interrogated him in
Queretaro, nor did anyone release him on Nov. 9, 1998.

The document that alleges the release of Mr. Garcia Abrego is false, as
disavowed by the then-head of the Specialized Unit Against Organized Crime,
Samuel Gonzalez Ruiz.

It is well known that in February 1997, Mexico's judiciary ordered the
release of Mr. Garcia Abrego. The Attorney General's Office carried out all
reasonable legal procedures to keep him detained; unfortunately, these
efforts were unsuccessful.

On Sept. 26, 1997, the Attorney General's Office obtained an arrest warrant
for Mr. Garcia Abrego for tax fraud. He filed an amparo writ, a legal tool
used to contest an act by a governmental authority, several times, but his
petitions were denied.

According to The Post, Mr. Garcia Abrego would have been under detention in
Queretaro on Nov. 5, 1998. But the Attorney General's Office has official
documents which prove that on that date he signed a new amparo writ
petition in Matamoros City.

The investigations in connection with drug trafficking in Cancun, which,
among other results, led to large seizures of assets, began in June 1998.
Mr. Garcia Abrego gave no information related to that case.

The Attorney General's Office is concerned that The Post gives more
credibility to anonymous sources than to official information provided in a
timely fashion by senior officials.

Mr. Garcia Abrego is one of the most important targets of the Attorney
General's Office. The office will continue searching for him until he is
captured and brought to justice.

Gloria Vazquez-Rangel
Mexico City

The writer is general director for Crime Prevention and Community Services
at the Attorney General's Office of Mexico.