ACCUSER OF TOP GENERALS SLAIN IN MEXICO

MEXICO CITY -- A lawyer who accused top generals and relatives of President
Ernesto Zedillo of narcotics graft as a defense tactic in the corruption
trial of the Mexican government's drug czar was slain as he drove away from
his Guadalajara offices late on Tuesday.

The lawyer, Tomas Arturo Gonzalez Velazquez, 43, died in his car after he
was shot with a 9-millimeter pistol, the authorities said.

Publico, a Guadalajara newspaper, said the killer "had short hair and
looked like a soldier." Some witnesses said he acted with the confidence of
a police officer.

Gonzalez was the architect of the defense of the drug czar, Gen. Jesus
Gutierrez Rebollo, after his arrest in February 1997 on charges that he
abused his powers to protect one of Mexico's largest traffickers.

In several court appearances, Gonzalez portrayed the general's arrest as
part of a vast power struggle within the military, in which some top
commanders were collaborating with a trafficking group based in Tijuana and
others with a rival group based in Ciudad Juarez.

He also argued, without providing evidence, that Zedillo's brother-in-law
had formed ties with a major methamphetamine trafficker.

Mexico's defense minister, Gen. Enrique Cervantes Aguirre, barely contained
his fury in several public denials of Gonzalez's charges. But in a
classified report presented in February to Attorney General Janet Reno,
American officials seemed to give credence to some of the allegations that
were first lodged publicly by Gonzalez. The report argued that the arrest
of Gutierrez Rebollo was part of a broader web of top generals and
traffickers than the Mexican government has acknowledged.

Last July, five months into the trial, the military police detained
Gonzalez as he attended a court hearing and accused him of orchestrating an
attack on a witness scheduled to testify against the general. The lawyer
was released without charge, but weeks later he distanced himself from the
general's defense team.

Gutierrez Rebollo's daughter, Teresa Gutierrez Ramirez, told reporters that
Gonzalez had received anonymous death threats, and she accused the
authorities of coercing him to resign from the defense team.

"It seems like it's a crime to defend Gutierrez Rebollo," she said.
"They're trying to intimidate the defense."

Wednesday, however, the lawyer who replaced Gonzalez on the general's
defense team, Felix Francisco Garza, questioned that interpretation.

"Tomas Gonzalez has been separated from Gutierrez Rebollo's defense for
many months, he's out of the case, and I don't see any connection between
the murder and the general's trial," Garza said. "Maybe this murder is
related to some other business or case Gonzalez was handling."

Gutierrez Rebollo, who was held for 14 months at the high-security Almoloya
Prison west of Mexico City, was convicted of illegal possession of arms and
abuse of authority and sentenced in January to 13 years' imprisonment,
Garza said. Parallel military courts-martial and civilian trials on bribery
and drug charges continue.

Before the general's arrest, Gonzalez belonged to a small group of current
and former police officials and military subordinates who were the
general's closest collaborators during his years as commander of a vast
army region based in Guadalajara. Prosecutors have presented evidence that
Gutierrez Rebollo protected the Juarez cartel while acting in aggressive
pursuit of the Tijuana cartel.

In a series of interviews after the general's arrest last year, Gonzalez
acknowledged that he had personally taken part in many of Gutierrez
Rebollo's antinarcotics operations, once driving a narcotics witness in his
own car from Guadalajara to a nearby state to identify detainees and other
times participating in often-brutal interrogations of prisoners.

Gonzalez acknowledged his friendship with Eduardo Gonzalez Quirarte, a
Guadalajara trafficker associated with the Juarez cartel, referring to him
in the interviews with an affectionate nickname, Lalo.

Gonzalez enjoyed an even closer friendship with Luis Octavio Lopez Vega, a
former police chief of the Guadalajara suburb of Zapopan, whom Gutierrez
Rebollo set up in a security business and whose private gunmen took part in
some army antidrug operations.