Suicide Note Declares Ex-Official’s Innocence

In a final note released Thursday, a Mexican former anti-drug prosecutor who died this week of an apparent suicide wrote that he was “absolutely innocent of all charges” against him and accused the Mexican government of fabricating evidence and buying witnesses.

Mario Ruiz Massieu, who was found dead Wednesday in his apartment in Palisades Park, N.J., accused members of Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, of being behind the 1994 slaying of his brother, Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu. He added in his note that Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo “is well aware of this, since he had a lot to do with it.”

Mario Ruiz Massieu had been scheduled to be arraigned today in Texas on federal charges of conspiracy and laundering more than $9 million in drug payoffs through Houston banks. He had left Mexico in 1995 and had been under house arrest in New Jersey since then, warding off extradition attempts by his government.

As a top prosecutor in his homeland, Ruiz Massieu investigated his brother’s slaying but later was accused of seeking to cover up the crime.

“To find my brother’s murderers, an investigation should be initiated beginning with Zedillo,” Ruiz Massieu wrote in the letter, which was addressed “To whom it may concern.”

“I loved life and I left when I became tired of loving it without living it,” Mexico’s onetime drug czar wrote before apparently taking a lethal dose of anti-depressants. “I wish that with my departure, Ernesto Zedillo once and for all will leave my family in peace, stopping persecution against them.”

The contents of the note were released by Ruiz Massieu’s lawyer, Cathy Fleming, at a news conference in her Manhattan office. Fleming said Ruiz Massieu’s signature is on the note.

His wife, Maria Eugenia Barrientos, read a short statement as she fought back tears.

“My husband was, is and will always be innocent,” she said.

Fleming said that Ruiz Massieu had been under treatment for depression for several years and that she spoke with him the night before his death.

“I think he just got tired. He just didn’t have the fight anymore,” she said. “We discussed the upcoming proceedings in Houston and spoke of transportation arrangements.”

The lawyer said Ruiz Massieu’s wife and daughter, Regina, were seeking to remain in the United States.

In a passionate defense of her client, Fleming alleged:

“Because he dared to criticize publicly the Zedillo administration and that criticism was aired worldwide, Mexico has fabricated evidence, tortured people to make them witnesses, and used the United States to hound and harass its accuser.”

In Mexico City, a spokesman for Zedillo declined to comment on Ruiz Massieu’s letter, saying that Atty. Gen. Jorge Madrazo Cuellar would speak for the government.

Madrazo rejected Ruiz Massieu’s allegations that he was being framed. Madrazo told reporters Thursday that there was “very solid evidence” tying the former official to bribes from drug cartels, and denied any personal motives in trying to prosecute him.

“I think this is the expression of a psychopath who is on the point of taking his life,” Madrazo told reporters, referring to Ruiz Massieu’s note. “Juridically, this has absolutely no value. That’s why I began by saying that this letter, rather than being analyzed by a jurist, should be analyzed by a psychiatrist.

“Mario Ruiz Massieu lived telling lies,” Madrazo said, “and he died telling lies.”

Ruiz Massieu was arrested in March 1995 at Newark airport as he was about to travel to Spain with his wife and daughter. He was carrying $45,000 in undeclared cash in a briefcase.

Currency charges filed by prosecutors in New Jersey were later dropped. Meanwhile, Ruiz Massieu successfully fought four attempts by Mexican authorities to extradite him.

Mexican officials charged that he was protecting one of the participants in his brother’s slaying: Raul Salinas de Gortari, the brother of the former president.

Raul Salinas was convicted in January for the murder and is imprisoned near Mexico City.

The federal indictment in Houston accused Ruiz Massieu of using his government post to take large bribes. U.S. government lawyers charged in the indictment that a top aide to Ruiz Massieu made 25 trips from Mexico City to Houston, carrying $9.9 million in cash that he deposited in bank accounts.

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Times staff writer Mary Beth Sheridan in Mexico City contributed to this report.