Pubdate: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 Source: New York Times (NY) Contact: Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Author: Anthony DePalma SALINAS BROTHERS TIED TO MORE CRIMES; FEW MEXICANS SURPRISED MEXICO CITY -- Downtown peddlers may not sell nearly as many of the caricature masks of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari as they once did. But nearly four years after he left office, he -- and members of his family -- remain very much connected in the minds of many Mexicans with corruption and abuse of power. Although Salinas has never been formally accused of a crime, many of the people around him have been charged with wrongdoing, and some have been convicted. In just the last few days, an arrest warrant was issued for Salinas' former personal secretary, who is charged with not being able to explain how, as a public servant, he was able to accumulate millions of dollars in several bank accounts. Also this week, federal prosecutors arrested the personal accountant of Salinas' elder brother Raul on the same charge, illicit enrichment. The accountant is charged with having used his own name to hide houses and other properties purchased by Raul Salinas, who is in a maximum security jail outside Mexico City on charges of illicit enrichment and homicide. And Tuesday a federal judge sentenced Raul Salinas' wife to two years in prison for pressuring their driver and handyman to lie when called to testify in the homicide proceedings against her husband. "The Salinas name still conjures negative images and outright hatred," said Sergio Sarmiento, a prominent Mexico City columnist and television news director. "Whenever you want to accuse someone in Mexico of being dishonest or anything else negative, you just have to say he was a friend of Salinas and you don't need to say any more." Sarmiento said he has had to withstand such accusations himself after writing unpopular columns, even though he only met the former president twice. The Salinas name appears in newspapers practically every day, even though the former president and his older brother are almost never seen in public. Carlos Salinas lives in Dublin in a kind of self-imposed exile. Occasionally he issues a statement by fax through his lawyers or grants a limited interview. Shortly after he left office in disgrace, the rubber masks appeared on the streets of Mexico. Street vendors did a brisk business for a while, but the market seems to have evaporated. Now they are more often used for comic effect by street performers who swallow fire or build human pyramids. Raul Salinas has been in prison since he was arrested in Mexico City in February 1995 and charged with having planned and ordered the murder of his former brother-in-law, Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu. Ruiz Massieu had been married to the Salinas' sister, Adriana, but they divorced. He was secretary general of the long-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party and was gunned down in Mexico City in September 1994. While in jail Raul Salinas sent his wife, Paulina, to Switzerland to try to withdraw some of the $130 million he had in banks there, some in the name of his accountant, Juan Manuel Gomez Gutierrez. Swiss authorities blocked her, and since then have said they believe the money is linked to the illegal drug trade. They have said they expect to bring charges against Raul Salinas soon. Federal officials confirmed Thursday that they had arrested Gomez Gutierrez in Ciudad Juarez, near the U.S. border, on Wednesday. He faces charges of helping Raul Salinas hide his fortune, and was released Thursday on $70,000 bail. The officials also say they have issued an arrest warrant against the former president's personal secretary, Justo Ceja Martinez. The newspaper El Universal reported Thursday that prosecutors say that during the years Ceja handled the president's personal affairs, from 1988 to 1994, he was able to amass more than $3 million at Thursday's exchange rate -- even though his salary was less than $2,700 a month. Investigators also believe that Ceja had a close relationship to Adrian Carrera Fuentes, the former head of the Mexican national police, who recently testified before a federal grand jury in the United States about drug bribes to ranking members of the Salinas administration. Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company - --- Checked-by: Melodi Cornett