Mexico Initiates Drug Probe of Raul Salinas

Mexican authorities said Wednesday that they have launched an investigation into whether Raul Salinas de Gortari was a major drug-trafficking figure during his brother’s presidency, as Swiss officials have charged.

The Mexicans announced their probe after Swiss officials moved Tuesday to seize $114.4 million in European bank accounts, charging that it had come from drug trafficking.

But even as the new investigation got underway here, many Mexicans cast doubt on the Swiss allegation that Salinas was a kingpin who virtually controlled the booming Mexican cocaine business from 1988 to 1994, while his brother Carlos was president.

The Swiss charges, the product of a three-year investigation, appeared to raise as many questions as they answered. If, in fact, Raul Salinas played a central role in moving Colombian cocaine to the United States, how much of the Mexican government had to be involved? And why did U.S. anti-drug officials miss Salinas’ alleged role?

“There is reason to doubt the testimony of all these witnesses who backed up the accusation” of the Swiss authorities, said Jose Luis Ramos Rivera, who has led Mexico’s prosecution of Raul Salinas, in remarks to reporters.

The witnesses, he added, are “people linked to drug trafficking, or who are on trial for drug trafficking. Nonetheless, this doubt is not sufficient. What we must do is verify and corroborate if these witnesses told the truth or not.”

Raul Salinas already is being tried in Mexico on charges of illegal enrichment and for allegedly ordering the murder of his brother-in-law, politician Francisco Ruiz Massieu. Jailed near the capital since 1995 but not convicted here of any charge, Salinas has proclaimed his innocence and called the Swiss charges “an absurd novel of narco-fiction.”

Former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari also maintains his innocence. Although he was not targeted in the Swiss probe, many wonder how he could have avoided knowing of his brother’s activities. Carlos Salinas lives in self-imposed exile in Ireland.

The Swiss charges constituted an official endorsement of accusations involving narcotics that have swirled around Raul Salinas since authorities in 1995 discovered more than $100 million in his Swiss bank accounts.

But the Swiss charges go further than previous accusations. They paint Salinas as a godfather of the Mexican drug trade who ushered tons of cocaine through this country and across the border even as his brother was being feted as a close U.S. ally.

That portrait of Raul Salinas was challenged Wednesday by Mexican columnists, political analysts and officials.

Many noted the Swiss brought civil, not criminal, charges against Salinas, which would have required a higher standard of evidence.

“I’m sure that if there was solid evidence to prove Salinas’ complicity in drug trafficking, criminal charges would have been pressed in Mexico, the United States and Switzerland,” wrote Sergio Sarmiento, a columnist for the Mexico City daily Reforma.

He and others noted that the Swiss witnesses included many drug traffickers imprisoned in the United States who were apparently seeking reduced sentences or other benefits.

Other observers questioned whether Salinas could have secretly coordinated all the police, soldiers and government officials needed to control the movement of drugs through Mexico. Human rights expert Teresa Jardi, who worked in the attorney general’s office in 1993-94, said the Swiss implied that Salinas had Mexican anti-drug officials under his thumb. But, she noted, Ramos Rivera, Salinas’ lead prosecutor, was a top government drug investigator in 1993.

Ramos Rivera “would have had to know” if Salinas was a drug lord in 1993, she said. “So he’s his accomplice? This is a huge farce.”

While casting doubt on some of the Swiss findings, however, officials in the Mexican attorney general’s office announced that they have asked permission to interrogate the witnesses in U.S. prisons.

Mexican authorities also announced that they will subpoena top anti-drug officials and attorneys general from the Salinas administration. And they plan to question Mexican business executives who, according to Raul Salinas, were the source of the millions of dollars in the Swiss bank accounts. Salinas claims the money was for an investment fund he headed.

The Swiss have not publicly released the 230-page report setting out their case against Salinas. However, the law enforcement officials have staunchly defended their conclusions.

“Most of them do not know one another personally. Nor could they have known who else would give evidence,” said a Swiss statement issued Tuesday. “Yet the depositions taken from a great number of different persons with different viewpoints agree with one another and add up to a homogeneous overall picture.”

Sixteen witnesses’ names were kept confidential, a fact that was assailed by Mexican critics.

“We are not a Third World country with no rules,” retorted Valentin Roschacher, head of the Swiss police narcotics unit, at a news conference. “I think we have quite a good system.”