MEXICAN DOCTOR GIVEN REFUGE IN UNITED STATES

The United States has given refuge to a doctor involved in a botched
plastic surgery operation on a Mexican drug lord who died afterward, The
Washington Post reported Saturday.

U.S. officials confirmed to the newspaper that Pedro Rincon and his family
were clandestinely taken from Mexico to the United States last November and
put under the witness protection program.

The drug kingpin, Amado Carrillo Fuentes - nicknamed "The Lord of the
Skies" for his ability to move huge shipments of cocaine in retired
jetliners - died after major plastic surgery in July 1997.

Two other doctors involved in the operation were tortured and killed and
their bodies stuffed into concrete-filled steel drums, the Post said.

According to the newspaper, U.S. sources familiar with Rincon's statements
said he maintained the Carrillo's death was the result of medical failure
and that the drug lord had hepatitis when they operated.