Pubdate: Mon, 14 Feb 2000
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2000 The Washington Post Company
Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Molly Moore, Washington Post Foreign Service
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n392/a07.html

MEXICAN MAGAZINE PRINTS INTERVIEW WITH FUGITIVE EX-GOVERNOR

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 13 - A former state governor facing charges of corruption
and protecting drug traffickers who disappeared more than 10 months ago
broke his silence in an interview published today in a national newsmagazine.

Despite an international manhunt, officials of both the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency and the Mexican attorney general's office have claimed
to know nothing about Mario Villanueva's whereabouts since he disappeared
last April, 10 days before his term - and his immunity from prosecution -
ended. But an upstart Mexican newsweekly, Milenio, published a four-page
interview with Villanueva in today's editions. The magazine did not
disclose where he was, noting only that Villanueva appeared to spend his
days in the company of birds and cockroaches.

The disappearance of the governor of the Yucatan peninsula state of
Quintana Roo just days before his term ended has been a major embarrassment
to Mexico at a time when the country is struggling to prove that democratic
reforms are stripping government officials of impunity.

Villanueva was the highest ranking elected Mexican official to be formally
investigated for allegations involving drug trafficking while still in
office. In the last two years, Quintana Roo - which includes the luxury
resort of Cancun--has become a major headquarters and transit point for
Mexico's most powerful organized crime organization, the Juarez cartel.

Both national and international newspapers had reported that Mexican
authorities planned to arrest Villanueva as soon as his term expired, and
federal law enforcement authorities reportedly had him under constant
surveillance. Law enforcement authorities had no comment on the magazine
interview.

Since his disappearance, Mexican media and law enforcement authorities have
reported that he sought refuge in a variety of countries, including Cuba,
Panama and Belize. Villanueva was quoted as telling the magazine he fled
Mexico because he feared he would not receive a fair trial.

Villanueva also said that he considered the charges against him "a brutal
injustice" and added that Mexican authorities "don't have any proof. I
never had anything to do with narcos because I was a governor. ... Who can
have more power than a governor?"

The former governor alleged that his political enemies, including the
Mexican president, concocted allegations that accusations he received
payoffs for protecting drug traffickers who were using his state to launder
drug proceeds and ship South American cocaine. President Ernesto Zedillo
and Villanueva had numerous public political disagreements within the
ruling party, to which they both belong.

Throughout the magazine article, Villanueva complained about his life on
the lam. "This prison is worse than whatever they have," the magazine
quoted Villanueva as saying. "I can't see my children, I have no
communication with anybody. Every day I write a letter to my wife that I
can't send."
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