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Border Corruption Spreads.
Corruption Bombshells Send Out Political Shockwaves
Billions of dollars in profits flow from the illegal
trafficking of drugs, merchandise and human beings along
the northern and southern borders of Mexico. As recent
episodes highlight, the so-called underground economy
sometimes produces public scandals that cross borders.
Politically, recent exposures of alleged government law-
breaking and corruption along the two borders are fraying
binational relations, sparking international diplomatic
ruffles and shuffles, setting off internal political rows
and inspiring stinging criticisms. The revelations come
during national election years in both the United States
and Mexico.
In one recent case, for instance, Mexican immigration
agency official Francisco Javier Gutierrez was arrested
January 29 at a US Border Patrol checkpoint near
Alamogordo, New Mexico, after he allegedly tried to pass
through the inspection with undocumented passengers.
Quoted in Mexico's national press, Fox Administration
spokesman Ruben Aguilar said the Gutierrez arrest and
other, unspecified border cases were under
investigation "by the responsible Mexican authorities".
In a strange case that implies smuggling marijuana from
the United States into Mexico, the wife of the Mexican
consul in Presidio, Texas, southeast of El Paso was
detained by Mexican authorities on drug charges after more
than 70 pounds of marijuana were discovered packed into a
suitcase in her vehicle when she was returning from
Presidio at the Ojinaga, Chihuahua, border crossing on
January 24. "We presume the drug could have been acquired
in the US but we aren't sure,” said Jesus Luis Orozco, the
assistant delegate for the Federal Attorney General's
Office (PGR) in Chihuahua.
Patricia Cardenas, who is married to Mexican Consul
Justiniano Menchaca Fuentes, was later freed, however,
when her son admitted he was the owner of the marijuana
shipment. Justo Menchaca and his wife, Eloisa Muñoz
Torres, were then arraigned on drug charges. The bust
caused Counsel Menchaca to resign his post, but the
diplomat could be reinstated to Mexico's foreign service
pending the outcome of the case, according to Mexican
Foreign Minister Ernesto Derbez. "According to the
declarations of his son and daughter-in-law, the counsel
is not the responsible one,” Derbez said.
On Mexico's southern border, another possible case of
official involvement in human trafficking was revealed
during the last week of January when Mexican immigration
authorities detained Jose Alfredo Reyes Leon, a
functionary assigned to the Salvadoran consulate in
Tapachula, Chiapas. Accused of attempting to transport
four undocumented Salvadorans in a consulate vehicle,
Reyes was jailed in the local prison on human trafficking
charges. The incident prompted the firing of the
Salvadoran consul in Tapachula, Edgar Enriquez Gomez, who
assumed the diplomatic post in January 2005. Gomez
replaced Asdrubal Aguilar, the longtime head of El
Salvador's Tapachula consulate and the current Salvadoran
consul in Georgia.
Back on the northern border, the political fallout
continues from a January 23 incident in Hudspeth County
southeast of El Paso, Texas, in which an alleged group of
Mexican soldiers drew weapons on police cornering a drug
smuggling gang trying to cross the border with marijuana.
The confrontation helped prompt a diplomatic note to the
Mexican government from US Ambassador Tony Garza, a
counter note from Mexican Foreign Minister Ernesto Derberz
accusing Garza of usurping US Secretary of State
Condoleeza Rice's authority and the convening of a US
congressional hearing. Opposition members of the Mexican
congress responded to the charges and counter-charges by
demanding that the foreign minister engage in a serious
dialogue with Washington.
Despite the existence of photos of the January 23
incident, Foreign Minister Derbez insisted the men
dressed as soldiers were imposters. Derbez initially
suggested it wasn't even clear from which country the
gunmen came. "Nobody knows at this moment what the
nationality was of those that were involved in the
action," Derbez said.
The foreign minister's position was supported in a
February 3 Mexico City press conference by Mexican Defense
Minister Clemente Vega and Attorney General Daniel Cabeza
de la Vaca. Denying the involvement of Mexican military
personnel, General Vega contended the gunmen in question
belonged to a group of Juarez Valley drug traffickers who
have outfitted 6 Hummer vehicles to facilitate their
operations.
He identified the ring-leaders as Jose Rodolfo Escajeda
Escajeda, Alonso Escajeda Candelaria, Edgar “N” and Cesar
Gandara. The general did not explain how the men were
identified or why they have not been detained, but the PGR
is investigating their whereabouts, according to
officials. General Vega and Attorney General Cabeza de la
Vaca also announced the arrest of Oscar Arreola Marquez,
an alleged drug dealer and money launderer wanted in the
United States.
On the other hand, Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West,
earlier said he had no doubt about who is responsible for
pointing guns and allowing the drug traffickers to escape
on January 23. Sheriff West maintained the Mexican army is
involved in a "revolving business" of protecting drug
shipments coming from the Juarez Valley into the US, as
well as permitting the entry into Mexico of trailer loads
of contraband merchandise known as "fayuca."
According to Sheriff West, 18-wheeler trucks filled with
clothes, toys, electronics and other illegally imported
goods pass from north to south unmolested by the Mexican
army as they head toward back roads leading to the
Chihuahua town of Villa Ahumada, south of the checkpoints
near Ciudad Juarez, before driving into the Mexican
interior. "We've seen this for years. Everyone who lives
here knows it," Sheriff West said. Law enforcement agents
with the Chihuahua State Public Security Ministry
previously conducted contraband detection operations in
the zone described by Sheriff West but suspended them last
October.
Expressing frustration at Washington and Mexico City,
Sheriff West lashed out against federal administrations in
both countries. "Fox's and Bush's people are a pack of
liars. They don't want friendship between the two
countries," Sheriff West fulminated. "Neither the border
nor the poor people, the little people, interest them."
Sheriff West, who is active in a coalition of border law
enforcement officials seeking additional funding, is
scheduled to testify before the US Congress.
The taint of corruption, meanwhile, has touched military
ranks in the United States. Five members of the Air Force,
Army and Arizona National Guard pleaded guilty this week
in Arizona to federal charges that they smuggled cocaine
shipments through US Border Patrol and police checkpoints
in Arizona and Nevada. The arrests resulted from an
undercover FBI investigation and sting during 2001-2004.
The guilty pleas closely followed a similar case in which
four members of the US Army's elite anti-narcotics unit
based in El Paso and assigned to Colombia were convicted
of smuggling cocaine back into the US on military
aircraft. Three of the soldiers received prison sentences
ranging from 5 to 8 years, while Staff Sergeant Daniel
Rosas got a stiff term of 23 years in the slammer.
Sources: El Universal/ Notimex, February 3, 2006.
El
Sur/Agencia Reforma/El Universal, January 28, 29, 30 and
31, 2006; February 2, 2006.
Enfoque Nacional, February 2
and 3, 2006.
El Paso Times, February 2, 2006. Article by
Jake Rollow.
El Heraldo de Chihuahua, February 2, 2006.
Article by Jose Ernesto Topete Bernal.
Excelsior, January
28, 29 and 30, 2006. Articles by Tere Zamudio, Octaviano
Lozano Tinoco, Cecilia Tellez Cortes, and the Notimex news
agency.
Army Times, January 27, 2006. Article by Michelle
Tam.
(Image: File - Valley Publishing Company)
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