Pubdate: Sat, 25 Mar 2000
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2000 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190
Fax: (408) 271-3792
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Author: RICARDO SANDOVAL, Mercury News Mexico City Bureau

SHOOTING SHOWS FLAWS IN MEXICAN DRUG WAR

MEXICO CITY -- The fourth drug-related shooting in a month is casting new
suspicion on the crime-fighting abilities of Mexico's attorney general.

Thursday, gunmen opened fire in a downtown Mexico City hotel restaurant,
killing one person and injuring four others, including former drug
intelligence agent Cuauhtemoc Herrera Saustegui.

The assault occurred in the Imperial Hotel -- a hangout for Mexican
prosecutors and drug agents -- near headquarters of the PGR, the acronym in
Spanish for Mexico's equivalent of the U.S. Justice Department. It was the
second drug-related shooting in Mexico City in a week, and follows the
apparent suicide of the attorney general's top administrative officer, who
left about $2 million in hard-to-explain cash.

All this has put an unflattering spotlight on the PGR, with some Mexican
politicians suggesting that Attorney General Jorge Madrazo must resign.
Madrazo remains defiant, telling reporters recently that his enemies ``will
not run me out of my office.''

Donnie Marshall, acting administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, recently told U.S. senators that Mexican drug gangs present
the ``greatest threat we face in the United States today -- perhaps the
greatest threat we've ever faced.''

But he singled out Madrazo as an example of what's good in Mexico's fight
against drug dealers. ``The Mexican attorney general -- Mr. Madrazo -- I
believe to be a dedicated professional trying to do the best job possible
under the circumstances that he's dealing with,'' Marshall said.

Those circumstances include being surrounded by police officers corrupted by
drug money and hounded by unfettered drug violence. On March 18, the
attorney for a high-ranking member of the Tijuana-based Arellano-Felix
cartel was found shot to death in a southern neighborhood of this national
capital. That slaying came less than a month after the chief of police in
Tijuana was assassinated by suspected drug dealers.

And on March 8, Juan Manuel Izabal apparently shot himself before having to
explain $2 million found in U.S. and Mexican bank accounts and safe-deposit
boxes in his name. Izabal oversaw the PGR's stockpile of seized drug
traffickers' property -- from hotels and fancy homes to cars and cash. He
also managed the agency's payroll, which reportedly included at least a
dozen phantom employees who collected regular paychecks.

No links have been established between Izabal and drug traffickers. A
ranking PGR official said the Izabal case may be more related to
old-fashioned non-drug corruption.

But crime experts say his death points to serious problems within Madrazo's
administration and that the latest gunfire exposes systemic corruption among
Mexican police. In a recent meeting with Mexican and U.S. reporters, Eduardo
Ibarrola, one of Madrazo's top aides, admitted that federal police ranks
were rife with corruption.

In recent months, 1,400 federal police officers have been fired on
allegations of corruption or criminal activity. At least 350 have been
prosecuted, Ibarrola said. The PGR is now administering polygraph tests and
doing background checks in an effort to clean house, he said.

But Herrera's rehiring last year -- even after he reportedly failed a
polygraph test -- has not helped the agency's image.

Madrazo's drug czar, Mariano Herran Salvatti, said Friday that Herrera first
left the agency in 1998 ``for personal reasons . . . for personal-safety
reasons.''

A former federal police officer, Herrera was stationed for two years in
Tijuana. There he told newspapers that ``I do not fear (the Arellano-Felix
organization). My job is to end drug trafficking.''

Two months ago, Herrera again left the PGR, after U.S. DEA reports linked
him to the drug network once led by the late trafficker Amado Carrillo
46uentes. Just hours before the Imperial Hotel assault, Herrera had faced a
round of questioning by PGR officials over the drug-corruption allegations.

Herrera was listed in good condition in a Mexico City hospital Friday.
Initial reports said he had died in Thursday's assault. Also injured in the
Imperial Hotel attack was Herrera's attorney, Silvia Raquenel Villanueva,
widely known for representing drug dealers. Two years ago, she survived an
attempted hit in her law office in the northern city of Monterrey.

Friday, police or the PGR had arrested six suspects in the Imperial Hotel
shooting.

Crime experts argued Friday that Madrazo must stay on the job precisely
because the recent violence requires a strong governmental response.

``To remove Madrazo now would be a mistake,'' said Carlos Humberto Toledo, a
newspaper columnist and former military officer who writes about Mexican
crime. ``It takes months for a new attorney general to get up to speed, and
replacing the chief now will cause a disastrous lapse at the PGR, right when
a strong response is needed to what seems like a war between drug dealers
that is spreading to the streets.''
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