Source: Houston Chronicle Contact: http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/ Pubdate: Sat, 07 Feb 1998 Author: Andrew Downie - Free-lance journalist based in Mexico City MEXICO ASKS PROOF OF TRAFFICKING Officials want more information about alleged CIA document MEXICO CITY-- Mexico has asked the United States to substantiate allegations that Mexico's interior minister was involved with drug traffickers while serving as governor of Sinaloa state, senior Mexican government officials said Friday. The Mexican government wants to know more about an alleged CIA document cited in a newspaper report that supposedly incriminates Francisco Labastida Ochoa, who just weeks ago was placed in charge of Mexico's security. One Mexican Embassy official in Washington said the report, published in Thursday's editions of the Washington Times, was aimed at discrediting Mexico in Congress. The Clinton administration must make its annual announcement by March 1 on which countries are to be certified before Congress for cooperating in the fight against drugs. Countries that are not certified face loss of aid and economic sanctions. "What this Foreign Ministry did was to immediately ask the State Department for a clarification, that it undertake a serious investigation into this supposed document," Mexican Foreign Minister Rosario Green said. "We expect a very quick response." The newspaper article claimed Labastida had ignored trafficking in his home state while he was governor between 1987 and 1993. In Washington, a spokesman for the Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment on the newspaper report. U.S. anti-drug officials could not immediately confirm whether the CIA report existed. The paper claimed Labastida privately had acknowledged dealing with traffickers but said he had denied taking money. The front- page story quoted "top secret" CIA documents. Labastida is the third Mexican governor in a year to be accused by U.S. newspapers of involvement with drug traffickers. The New York Times last year accused the governors of Sonora and Morelos states of cooperating with drug lords operating from havens within their states. Both governors denied the allegations. Traffickers operate in all three states, and Sinaloa is particularly notorious as the cradle of Mexican drug trafficking. Some 20 percent of Mexico's marijuana and a large portion of its opium is grown in the northwestern state. Almost all of the country's drug barons, including such powerful traffickers as Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo and Amado Carrillo Fuentes, were born and raised there. Drug-related corruption among security forces is rife, according to American anti- narcotics officers. Mexican officials, however, have repeatedly denied corruption is widespread among senior figures and they rallied behind Labastida. No record exists of any complaints or investigations into the Sinaloa politician, Federal Attorney General Jorge Madrazo said. "I want to say emphatically that the Federal Attorney General's Office has never been asked to investigate the current interior minister," Madrazo said. "Neither has any official agency of the United States government presented information in which the interior minister is implicated (in drug trafficking). What we have are multiple examples of cooperation between the then- governor of Sinaloa and the Federal Attorney General's Office." Both Green and Madrazo were angry at the accusations, labelling them an "attack" and seemingly hinting at the veracity of what they called the "supposed" document. In Mexico City, both Green and Madrazo lauded the anti-drug efforts carried out by the two countries and said such controversies went against the cooperative spirit. "If the intention is to derail cooperation and the good progress of matters ... it is not going to happen," Green said. The ranking U.S. diplomat in Mexico insisted the allegations would not affect the embassy's cooperation with the Interior Ministry or its head. "I have personally had contact with Minister Labastida and we have no intention of changing that level of exchange and work with that minister," said charge d'affaires Charles Brayshaw.