* San Antonio ExpressN.: Minister of Defense is asked to explain troops'
ties to drugs
* Miami Herald: More ties reported to military, drugs

Minister of Defense is asked to explain troops' ties to drugs


By Philip True , ExpressNews Mexico City Bureau
MEXICO CITY This nation's defense minister has been asked to
testify publicly on the extent of the military's involvment with
Mexican drug smugglers in the wake of allegations of its ties to
major cartels.
The request by a member of the Senate Armed Services Commission for
Gen. Enrique Cervantes Aguirre to appear comes on the heels of a
widening political scandal.
According to a report published by Proceso, a weekly news magazine,
defense officials have known for years that many top military
officers have ties to drug traffickers like the late Amado Carillo
Fuentes and the Arrellano Felix gang.
Carillo Fuentes, perhaps the world's foremost drug trafficker, died
in a Mexico City hospital earlier this month after undergoing
extensive plastic surgery to alter his appearance.
His death has touched off an apparent war of succession among drug
barons in northern Mexico.
``This is clearly a call to arms to begin looking into what is going
on in the military,'' said Luis Felipe Bravo Mena, a senator from
the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, from the state of
Mexico.
``It's like we were in a state of war with another country, and we
discovered that secret agents had penetrated our army,'' he said.
Bravo, a member of the armed services commission, said he will ask
chairman Alvaro Vallarte to call for Cervantes to meet with him and
other senators as soon as possible.
But, he added, there is no certainty that Cervantes will be formally
called, and Cervantes is not obligated to appear merely on the
request of a commission member.
``I think we could find good, bipartisan support on the commission
for his testimony, but it concerns me that so many of the commission
members are ex military officers,'' Bravo said.
``They tend to close ranks, not necessarily to prevent the airing of
corruption, but simply out of respect for the uniform,'' he said.
Proceso published a number of documents leaked by two military
intelligence officers stating, among other things, that Cervantes
and President Ernesto Zedillo had been informed of rampant
corruption, particularly in the Guadalajara military zone.
A ministry statement said the intelligence officers have been
arrested and face courtsmartial.
Investigators submitted a list of Guadalajara based officers with
alleged drugtrafficking ties to defense officials in 1991, the
magazine reported.
One report said investigators sent a letter to Zedillo in January,
shortly before the February arrest of Mexico's drug czar, Gen. Jesus
Gutierrez Rebollo, regarding Amado Carrillo's corrupting activities.
Gutierrez was arrested after defense officials found him living in a
Mexico City apartment belonging to one of Carrillo's lieutenants.
The reports also call into question Zedillo's strategy for replacing
the thoroughly corrupt federal narcotics police along the northern
border with army troops and officers.
At least three generals have been arrested on corruption charges
since February. The defense ministry reported Monday that 34
military personnel have been accused of narcoticsrelated crimes
since January.
Zedillo reportedly met with his national security council Monday,
and Cervantes reportedly called all military zone commanders to
Mexico City for consultations.
Spokesmen for Zedillo and Cervantes could not be reached for comment
Tuesday.
The recent advent of democracy in the Mexican legislature could
force congressional leaders to call Cervantes to testify, Bravo
said.
As a result of the July 6 election and for the first time in
modern history members of opposition parties in the lower Chamber
of Deputies will outnumber members of the longruling Institutional
Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The new members take their seats Sept.
1.
The PRI retains its majority in the Senate.
``It is possible that in the new Chamber of Deputies, there will be
no exmilitary men or PRIistas on the armed forces commission,''
Bravo said.
``They could then call the minister to testify, which would have a
galvanizing effect here in the Senate, possibly bringing him here.''
Bravo said that although the Mexican military is the most open in
Latin America, in Mexico it remains the most closed public
institution.
``I think that the secretariat of defense is capable of cleaning its
own house, but I think that it is high time that there was outside
oversight to verify what is going on,'' Bravo said.


(c) 1997, San Antonio ExpressNews

* More ties reported to military, drugs

By ANDRES OPPENHEIMER Herald Staff Writer Published Monday, July 28,
1997, in the Miami Herald In an indication that drug corruption
within the Mexican military may go much deeper than previously
admitted, a Mexican newsmagazine reported Sunday that 10 Mexican
generals and 22 other military officers are under investigation for
alleged ties to drug traffickers. The weekly Proceso also reported
that Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who headed the Juarez drug cartel until
his recent death, had written a private letter to President Ernesto
Zedillo on Jan. 14, offering a deal in which he would relinquish 50
percent of his wealth and keep drugs out of Mexico if the government
stopped pursuing him. Carrillo Fuentes died July 4 in a Mexico City
hospital, in what officials described as an eighthour cosmetic
surgery and liposuction operation to change his appearance. If
confirmed, the revelations would indicate the possibility of
behindthescenes government negotiations with Carrillo Fuentes. Such
negotiations would also raise new questions about the circumstances
of the Feb. 6 arrest of Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, until then head
of Mexico's antinarcotics police, who has been charged with being on
Carrillo Fuentes' payroll. Gutierrez Rebollo says he was arrested
after he began investigating alleged connections of members of
Zedillo's family to drug traffickers. According to Proceso, documents
from the military's secret files show that Gen. Juan Felix Tapia
Garcia, former head of the military zone based in Jalisco state, was
suspected of protecting and receiving presents from reputed drug lord
Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo. ``Nine investigations showed the criminal
responsibilities of 10 generals, 15 [military] chiefs, seven officers
and two soldiers, whose crimes went from very serious ones, such as
conspiracy . . . to minor ones, such as breaking military rules or
issuing false testimony,'' the magazine said. Two officers, Col.
Pablo Castellanos Garcia and Capt. Miguel Angel Hernandez Torres, are
being tried by a military court on charges of having copied the
classified military documents on the internal drug investigations
from the military's computers, it said. On drug lord Carrillo
Fuentes, it said he did not offer in his letter to turn himself in,
but to help crack down on independent cocaine barons, abstain from
selling drugs inside Mexico, and to bring more dollars into the
country to help revive its economy. In return, the drug lord
allegedly requested to be allowed to keep half of his wealth,
immunity for his family and permission to continue trafficking drugs
to the United States and Europe. If the government rejected his
offer, he would submit it ``and its benefits'' to another country,
his letter reportedly said. Copyright (c) 1997 The Miami Herald


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