Jorge Madrazo Cuellar

When Jorge Madrazo Cuellar was asked to serve as Mexico’s attorney general, he knew he would face many problems. He just didn’t realize how many, and how deep, those problems would be.

Slightly more than three months into the job, the 43-year-old former law professor and Mexico’s first human-rights ombudsman is engaged in a task that has been called the country’s most intractable: attempting to dismantle a conglomerate of international drug cartels that use Mexico as the spring board for distributing illegal drugs in the United States.

To succeed, Madrazo will need much courage, for he has entered an environment in which it is not always easy to distinguish friend from foe. In addition, Madrazo’s position has become an international hot seat: He must deal with the United States at a time when drug trafficking in Mexico has become a domestic U.S. issue. His job is to convince a skeptical U.S. Congress that Mexico has made progress in the war against illegal drugs. Yet, the more Madrazo tries to accommodate Washington’s demands, the more Mexican public opinion, as reflected in a highly nationalistic press, is convinced that the nation’s sovereignty has been deeded to Washington.

This is not all. Shock and horror have taken up residence in America’s southern neighbor. Mexicans are accustomed to their country’s unresolved guerrilla war in Chiapas and other states, its perpetual economic crisis and the eternal political shake-ups. But what Madrazo now confronts is new and almost fantastical: a torrent of rumors that threatens to ruin the reputations of so many in the Mexican establishment.

For example, the attorney general has to deal with an amazing soap opera, the central characters of which include a former president’s brother whose bank accounts in Switzerland could feed thousands of impoverished Mexicans for a lifetime and who is now under arrest, accused of masterminding a murder; the former national anti-drug czar, jailed for taking bribes from the cartels; a former leading prosecutor now on the lam, and a psychic hired by a this former prosecutor to find a missing body that could have implicated the former president’s brother, and who instead unearthed a corpse that turned out to be her own in-law.

Madrazo was interviewed in his office at the headquarters of the Procuraduria General de Justicia de la Republica Mexicana, on the second floor of a modern building that resembles a bunker. He works at the opposite end of the city from his beloved National Autonomous University of Mexico.

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Question: After the recent drug-related scandals in Mexico, there are people in the U.S. who say Mexico is not a nation of laws. How would you answer them?

Answer: Mexico is a country of laws--even though we do have our problems making law prevail. We have problems with impunity and with corruption. But we don’t hide our problems; we face them and want to solve them.

Q: How would you describe the mood of the country after these weeks filled with scandal and Mexico-bashing in the U.S.? Is the anti-American feeling growing here?

A: The process of certification does not help in any way to fight against drug trafficking. It is a unilateral statement in a bilateral relationship that becomes a recrimination. Passing judgment on the country hurts both the authorities and the people. Instead, cooperation that does not infringe upon the country’s sovereignty should be promoted. Having said that, I should also say we do admit we have serious problems we must fix.

Q: We’ll come back to those problems, but could you first answer some of the accusations Sen. Dianne Feinstein has raised against Mexico? For example, she asserts, ‘there has been little or no effective action taken against the major drug cartels.”

A: I believe Sen. Feinstein is wrong. We have arrested and jailed important heads of all the drug cartels. As a matter of fact, we’ve just arrested Oscar Malherbe the heir of Juan Garcia Abrego’s cartel, and at least seven important members of the Tijuana cartel. Two of them are held in jail in San Diego and the rest are in a Mexico City jail.

Q: Feinstein also complains that those arrested, such as Hector Palma, are given light sentences.

A: She is referring to a six-year sentence a judge in the state of Jalisco gave him under one judicial proceeding. We have appealed that sentence. But I should add that she does not mention there are several other criminal proceedings against him for other illicit activities, including homicide, in the states of Sonora, Sinaloa and Mexico. So this story won’t end there. We expect him to remain in jail for many more years to come.

Q: And her comments about the criminal money-laundering laws in Mexico being incomplete? She implies Mexico is an important center for money laundering. Is that true?

A: We feel the legislative changes we implemented last year to make money laundering a criminal offense was a great step forward. Of course, we have to work harder to make it happen faster, but we have already processed people charged with money laundering, and many bank accounts have been frozen. As a matter of fact, we have launched a money-laundering investigation against Raul Salinas de Gortari.

Q: Is Mexico willing to extradite Mexicans who have committed criminal acts in the United States or who are wanted for drug-related reasons?

A: The United States has asked for some extraditions, and each case has been dealt with in accordance with Mexican law and within the parameters of the agreement that we have on that issue. In Mexico, only the president has the authority to order the extradition of a Mexican citizen, and we have extradited some people who were involved in drug cases, in a homicide, and even one for sexual abuse in the U.S.

Q: Why was Juan Garcia Abrego’s brother released?

A: He was liberated by a judge’s order that ran against our position. His lawyers demanded an Amparo (a form of habeas corpus), and the judge concluded he could be liberated. Once free, we brought him to Mexico City for a deposition on another investigation we have on him. He was not under arrest and had the counsel of his lawyers. The problem we had was that, in 48 hours, we had to prove probable criminal cause against him, and our personnel set him free before they were supposed to do so. Now we are investigating those two agents who set him free. But you must understand there is neither an arrest order nor an extradition request concerning Humberto Garcia Abrego. In court, our office lost the case presented against him in 1996. We are, however, investigating him on another charge.

Q: Recently, you said the administration of justice was Mexico’s biggest problem. What do you mean?

A: The latest incidents reinforce my certainty that the existing inefficiency of the implementation of justice in Mexico is the biggest problem in the country. We have made progress in the economy--the recovery is beginning to take place; our democratic processes are getting stronger. But I don’t believe we have achieved any systematic progress in administering justice. We are in the middle of a crisis.

Q: What are the main problems you see?

A: I’ve been on the job for three months and two days, and I can see clearly the inefficiency of our police forces. Also, there is corruption--the case of Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo (the former drug czar) demonstrates clearly that we have to modify our operational systems, structures and strategies. This is not only a simple question of change in personnel. We must implement a series of reforms at once, and we must hire people who have been inoculated against fear and corruption.

Q: How can you do that?

A: All those who want to work with us must go through a series of five filters that examine their health condition and psychological profile. We’ll use polygraphic tests and check up their economic status with a follow-up on their spending behavior. But we are also raising salaries and offering job stability, life insurance and other benefits. We have to restore dignity to the law-enforcement career.

Q: What are the charges against Gen. Gutierrez Rebollo? And will he be tried in a military or civil court?

A: Both. The army will try him for criminal acts he committed while serving as the military commander of the 5th zone. This office charged him for belonging to an organized-crime group, for favoring drug trafficking and a third charge of conspiracy. All these are crimes we know he committed during the almost three months he acted as drug czar.

Q: Could he be sentenced to death?

A: The death penalty is a possibility in the Military Justice Code. But that is not my responsibility. We’ll take care of our business and expect an exemplary sentence.

Q: What proof do you have that he was involved with drug traffickers?

A: We know he was living in an apartment that belonged to (drug lord) Amado Carrillo (Fuentes), who owned another apartment a few floors up in the same building. But we also have a witness who testified the apartment was given to him by one of Carrillo’s staffers and much more evidence and documents that make us believe he is guilty as charged.

Q: You have so much pending business that I would like to clarify where some of it now stands. Who killed Cardinal Jose de Jesus Posada?

A: We believe that case is solved and the only way we would open another investigation would be if there is new evidence that points elsewhere. The evidence we have gathered, so far, does not question the results of the initial investigation in 1993. Unfortunately, he was shot unintentionally in the cross-fire between two rival criminal gangs.

Q: What is Raul Salinas charged with?

A: We have two criminal procedures against him. One for masterminding the murder of Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu; and another for illicit enrichment. However, we are also investigating him on other possible criminal acts, including money laundering.

Q: What about tax evasion?

A: He was exonerated by a judge on one small case of tax evasion, but that has nothing to do with the big money.

Q: Don’t you think that, after the scandal in which a psychic revealed the place where a body was planted on Raul Salinas’ property, there seems to be a weak case against him?

A: We still believe he masterminded the killing. We are trying to add substance to the proof we have and, from a legal point of view, the body on his property was not part of the process. It was an investigation that did not pan out.

Q: Are you also investigating former Atty. Gen. Antonio Lozano?

A: He’s been called by this office and he has made himself available three times for inquiries regarding payment to witnesses . . . . As far as I know, every single police organization in the world pays informants . . . . But we want to know how that money was paid: From which accounts was it drawn; what did they pay for, and when did they pay?

Q: Are you going to ask the U.S. to extradite former prosecutor Mario Ruiz Massieu to Mexico?

A: As you know, Mexico tried four times unsuccessfully to extradite him.

Q: What do you suspect he did that was a criminal act?

A: We want to know where the $9 million deposited in Texas came from. We also want to know what evidence the U.S. has to claim that $9 million. We are waiting to hear what comes out of the case against him in Houston.

Q: What about the recent accusations leveled against two Mexican governors who allegedly collaborate with some drug lords?

A: If anyone knows that these two governors are involved in an illegal business, they should send us proof of such a serious accusation. No one has done that.

Q: Why not check the information?

A: We have investigated criminal activities in those two states and we have found nothing that could lead us to launch a criminal investigation there. Yes, there is drug trafficking in Sonora, in Morelos and in many other states of the republic, but that does not allow us to conclude that the governor of that state is responsible for that criminal behavior.

Q: What do you believe will be the outcome of certification in Congress?

A: I am not an expert on American politics, but I do know the burden in the fight against illegal-drug trafficking is carried by the Mexican people. We have to do it to protect our society, our youth and our institutions. Hopefully, our fight may also help to improve the lot of young Americans. The enemy is neither the United States nor Mexico--the enemy is drug traffickers and it is against them that we should devote our effort.

Q: Are you optimistic about Mexico’s future?

A: Yes, I am an optimist who believes that good bilateral cooperation can bring us the best results. We have urgent business pending regarding money-laundering legislation, illegal traffic of weaponry and in so many other areas. We should not blame each other. The U.S. should stop saying Mexico does not cooperate enough, and Mexico should stop saying the U.S. should stop its consumption of illegal drugs. Let’s focus on the common enemy.