IN MEXICO, DRUG CRACKDOWNS PLACE SOME
POLITICAL ELITE IN THE HOT SEAT

CANCUN, Mexico - When federal drug agents swept past puzzled tourists this
month to seize three luxury hotels that line the powdery beaches of this
Caribbean resort, it perhaps came as little surprise that the police had
found evidence linking such properties to the biggest drug ring in Mexico.

What was more startling were the questions that agents kept posing about
the man they suspected of being the ring's silent partner in the hotels.
Over and over, they asked employees about Mario Villanueva Madrid, the
state governor and a member of President Ernesto Zedillo's governing party.

"They're practically accusing me of being a trafficker," Villanueva
protested, recounting how he immediately boarded a private jet and flew to
Mexico City to deny any financial ties to the hotels and complain to some
of Zedillo's senior aides.

Despite those complaints, Mexican officials say Villanueva continues to
figure in a sweeping investigation of drug operations in his state of
Quintana Roo.

But while one Mexican intelligence report describes Villanueva as being
"implicated in the criminal organization" that has turned the state into
one of the most important conduits for cocaine being shipped to the United
States, the federal government has neither filed criminal charges against
him nor been able to contain his political counterattack.

In a challenge to officials, Villanueva has demanded that they show what
evidence they might have against him. He has even fought publicly with
leaders of Mexico's governing party, presidential loyalists whom he and
other conservative governors are challenging for control.

Because of Villanueva's allegiance to the old guard, the police
investigation has become an electrifying test of Zedillo's ability to deal
with challenges of crime and politics that are multiplying in the governing
Institutional Revolutionary Party as the once-absolute authority of the
president erodes.

The confrontation underscores the rapid pace and the contradictory nature
of Mexico's political evolution.

Until recently, most Mexican governors served at the president's will.
Messy problems in the provinces were often solved by their dismissals, and
Zedillo's predecessor, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, forced the resignations
of almost a dozen governors and governors-elect after they ran into
accusations ranging from embezzlement to ballot theft.

Zedillo has slowly committed himself to more modern rules of greater
autonomy for the elected leaders of the 31 states.

But good government has not necessarily followed from greater democracy.

As in Quintana Roo, the president's powers often still rest on a criminal
justice system that is deeply in crisis, and on a political system that is
still being born.

For the time being, the federal authorities seem to be pursuing their
investigations in Quintana Roo with unusual vigor.

They have seized several hotels worth $200 million that they traced to the
traffickers. They also shut down a private security company at the Cancun
airport that officials say the traffickers used to safeguard drugs and even
film the movements of visiting federal agents.

A senior Mexican official said the odds were better than even that
Villanueva would be indicted on conspiracy or other charges after his term
concludes in April. Under Mexico's constitution, a governor cannot be
prosecuted unless he is first impeached by Congress.

"Just because he comes and says, `Look, I'm not guilty,' does not mean that
the thing ends there," said Mexican Atty. Gen. Jorge Madrazo.

"What I can't tell you is whether I am going to indict Mario Villanueva."

Checked-by: derek rea