SALINAS BROTHERS TIED TO MORE CRIMES; FEW MEXICANS SURPRISED

MEXICO CITY -- Downtown peddlers may not sell nearly as many of the
caricature masks of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari as they once
did. But nearly four years after he left office, he -- and members of his
family -- remain very much connected in the minds of many Mexicans with
corruption and abuse of power.

Although Salinas has never been formally accused of a crime, many of the
people around him have been charged with wrongdoing, and some have been
convicted.

In just the last few days, an arrest warrant was issued for Salinas' former
personal secretary, who is charged with not being able to explain how, as a
public servant, he was able to accumulate millions of dollars in several
bank accounts.

Also this week, federal prosecutors arrested the personal accountant of
Salinas' elder brother Raul on the same charge, illicit enrichment. The
accountant is charged with having used his own name to hide houses and other
properties purchased by Raul Salinas, who is in a maximum security jail
outside Mexico City on charges of illicit enrichment and homicide.

And Tuesday a federal judge sentenced Raul Salinas' wife to two years in
prison for pressuring their driver and handyman to lie when called to
testify in the homicide proceedings against her husband.

"The Salinas name still conjures negative images and outright hatred," said
Sergio Sarmiento, a prominent Mexico City columnist and television news
director.

"Whenever you want to accuse someone in Mexico of being dishonest or
anything else negative, you just have to say he was a friend of Salinas and
you don't need to say any more."

Sarmiento said he has had to withstand such accusations himself after
writing unpopular columns, even though he only met the former president twice.

The Salinas name appears in newspapers practically every day, even though
the former president and his older brother are almost never seen in public.

Carlos Salinas lives in Dublin in a kind of self-imposed exile. Occasionally
he issues a statement by fax through his lawyers or grants a limited interview.

Shortly after he left office in disgrace, the rubber masks appeared on the
streets of Mexico. Street vendors did a brisk business for a while, but the
market seems to have evaporated. Now they are more often used for comic
effect by street performers who swallow fire or build human pyramids.

Raul Salinas has been in prison since he was arrested in Mexico City in
February 1995 and charged with having planned and ordered the murder of his
former brother-in-law, Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu. Ruiz Massieu had been
married to the Salinas' sister, Adriana, but they divorced. He was secretary
general of the long-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party and was
gunned down in Mexico City in September 1994.

While in jail Raul Salinas sent his wife, Paulina, to Switzerland to try to
withdraw some of the $130 million he had in banks there, some in the name of
his accountant, Juan Manuel Gomez Gutierrez. Swiss authorities blocked her,
and since then have said they believe the money is linked to the illegal
drug trade. They have said they expect to bring charges against Raul Salinas
soon.

Federal officials confirmed Thursday that they had arrested Gomez Gutierrez
in Ciudad Juarez, near the U.S. border, on Wednesday. He faces charges of
helping Raul Salinas hide his fortune, and was released Thursday on $70,000
bail.

The officials also say they have issued an arrest warrant against the former
president's personal secretary, Justo Ceja Martinez. The newspaper El
Universal reported Thursday that prosecutors say that during the years Ceja
handled the president's personal affairs, from 1988 to 1994, he was able to
amass more than $3 million at Thursday's exchange rate -- even though his
salary was less than $2,700 a month.

Investigators also believe that Ceja had a close relationship to Adrian
Carrera Fuentes, the former head of the Mexican national police, who
recently testified before a federal grand jury in the United States about
drug bribes to ranking members of the Salinas administration.

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett