KIDNAPPED MAN ADMITS CARTEL TIES IN WEB VIDEO

The kidnapped brother of the former Chihuahua attorney general
appeared in an Internet video on Monday confessing ties to the Juarez
drug cartel.

Gunmen kidnapped Mario Gonzalez Rodriguez, a lawyer and brother of
former Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez Rodriguez, on Thursday in
Chihuahua City.

On Monday, a video appeared on the Internet showing Mario Gonzalez
handcuffed, sitting in a chair, and surrounded by five men dressed in
desert camouflage, wearing black ski masks and holding assault rifles.

At gunpoint, he answers a list of questions asked by a man
off-camera. The group holding Mario Gonzalez is not identified in the
video and the authenticity of his answers is unknown.

In the nearly 10-minute video, Mario Gonzalez said that he and his
sister provided protection for La Linea, or the Juarez drug cartel.
He also claimed Patricia Gonzalez ordered several murders, including
that of Juarez newspaper reporter Armando Rodriguez.

Patricia Gonzalez, who stepped down earlier this month with the
arrival of the new governor's administration, had previously denied
such allegations.

The video interrogator also asked Mario Gonzalez about several other
homicides, including a massacre in the town of Creel, Chihuahua. For
each question, he answered that La Linea was responsible.

When asked about the femicides, or the women's murders in Juarez and
Chihuahua City, Gonzalez said the women were slain by reputed kingpin
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes and other leaders in the Juarez drug cartel.

The Juarez cartel has been battling the Sinaloa cartel in a war that
has left more than 6,700 dead in Juarez since 2008. Mexican drug
cartels regularly use propaganda via the Internet, graffiti on walls
and banners displayed in public.