MEXICO PROBES RAFAEL SALINAS DRUG ALLEGATIONS

Doubts: Swiss Charges Of Trafficking By Ex-president's Brother Are Greeted
With Skepticism In His Home Country.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican authorities said Wednesday that they had
launched an investigation into whether Rafael Salinas de Gortari was a
major drug-trafficking figure during his brother's presidency, as
Swiss officials have charged.

Mexicans authorities announced their probe after Swiss officials moved
Tuesday to seize $114.4 million in European bank accounts, charging
that it had come from drug trafficking.

But even as the new investigation got under way in Mexico, many
Mexicans cast doubt on the Swiss allegation that Rafael Salinas was a
kingpin who virtually controlled the booming Mexican cocaine business
in 1988-94, when his brother, Carlos, was president.

Indeed, the Swiss charges, the product of a three-year investigation,
appeared to raise as many questions as they answered. If, in fact,
Rafael Salinas played a central role in moving Colombian cocaine to
the United States, how much of the Mexican government had to be
involved? And why did U.S. anti-drug officials miss Salinas' alleged
role?

``There is reason to doubt the testimony of all these witnesses who
backed up the accusation'' of the Swiss authorities, said Jose Luis
Ramos Rivera, who has led Mexico's prosecution of Rafael Salinas, in
remarks to reporters.

The witnesses, he said, are ``people linked to drug trafficking, or
who are on trial for drug trafficking. Nonetheless, this doubt is not
sufficient. What we must do is verify and corroborate if these
witnesses told the truth or not.''

Rafael Salinas is already facing Mexican charges of illegal enrichment
and of ordering the slaying of his brother-in-law, politician Jose
Francisco Ruiz Massieu. Jailed near the capital since 1995, but not
convicted here of any charge, Salinas has proclaimed his innocence and
called the Swiss charges ``an absurd novel of narco-fiction.''

Former President Carlos Salinas also maintains his innocence. While
he was not targeted in the Swiss probe, many wonder how he could have
avoided knowing of his brother's alleged activities. Carlos Salinas
lives in self-imposed exile in Europe.

The Swiss charges constituted an official endorsement of narcotics
accusations that have swirled around Rafael Salinas since authorities
in 1995 discovered more than $100 million in his Swiss bank accounts.

But the Swiss charges go further than previous accusations. They paint
Salinas as a godfather of the Mexican drug trade, who ushered tons of
cocaine through this country and over the border even as his brother
was being feted as a close U.S. ally.

That portrait of Rafael Salinas was challenged Wednesday by Mexican
columnists, political analysts and officials.

Many noted that the Swiss chose to bring civil, not criminal, charges
against Salinas. The latter would have required a higher standard of
evidence.

``I'm sure that if there was solid evidence to prove Salinas'
complicity in drug trafficking, criminal charges would have been
pressed in Mexico, the United States and Switzerland,'' wrote Sergio
Sarmiento, a columnist for the Mexico City daily Reforma.

He and others noted that the witnesses in the Swiss probe included
many drug traffickers imprisoned in the United States who were
apparently seeking reduced sentences or other benefits.

Other observers questioned whether Salinas could have secretly
coordinated all the police, soldiers and government officials needed
to control the movement of drugs through Mexico. Human rights expert
Teresa Jardi, who worked in the attorney general's office in 1993,
said the Swiss implied that Salinas had Mexican anti-drug officials
under his thumb. But, she noted, Ramos Rivera, Salinas' lead
prosecutor, was a top government drug investigator in 1993.

Ramos Rivera ``would have had to know'' if Salinas was a drug lord in
1993, she said. ``So he's his accomplice? This is a huge farce.''

Checked-by: Patrick Henry