Mexican Cartels Hiring; Green Berets Welcome

A US Congress member, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (DTX), charged during
the week of Aug. 17 that former US soldiers are working as
mercenaries for Mexican drug cartels. Reyes, a former high
ranking US Border Patrol official, said that when he ran
operations along the US border with Mexico, "we had a number of
instances where we had intelligence and where we had actual
verification that these types of individuals were in the employ
of some of the drug cartels, especially in south Texas." Other
experts say the mercenaries get up to $500,000 a year, especially
if they have been in the US Army Special Forces (Green Berets).
"The special ops guys as a group can do much besides teach
marksmanship. They know about burst transmissions, which are
difficult to intercept, bugs and detecting bugs," an unnamed
retired senior Army official told the Reuter news service.
[Reuter 8/20/97]

The Mexican drug cartels have reportedly being trying to
internationalize their operations. According to Chilean
authorities, Ciudad Juarez cartel head Amado Carrillo Fuentes
("The Lord of the Skies") was living in Chile from March through
June, apparently to invest in real estate and set up a money
laundering operation. Carrillo Fuentes died under mysterious
circumstances in a Mexico City clinic on July 4 [see Update
#389]. As of Aug. 21 the Chileans had arrested a total of nine
people they say were involved in Carrillo Fuentes' Chilean
enterprise, including Hernan Errazuriz Talavera, a former
ambassador to Great Britain. Errazuriz, who is the brother of
rightwing senator Francisco Javier Errazuriz Talavera, was freed
on Aug. 19 for lack of evidence. Traveling under a false name,
Carrillo Fuentes bought several luxury cars in Chile and rented a
half dozen mansions. Employees at the mansions say he was like
"the heroes in old Mexican movies...with a big moustache, very
goodnatured." [Reuter 8/18/97; La Jornada (Mexico) 8/21/97 from
DPA, Notimex]