Mexico trapped by the trial of its “super police” in the US.


By: AFP, El País

Mexico once again faces the turbidities of its war against drug trafficking with the trial in the United States of its former police chief Genaro García Luna, prosecuted for cocaine trafficking and complicity with the drug cartel. Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

The trial of the former Minister of Security (2006-2012) has gone to the heart of the matter since the first hearings, held before the same court of NY that sentenced “el Chapo” to life imprisonment in 2019 for drug trafficking.

The first hot testimony came Tuesday when Sergio Villarreal Barragán, a former Mexican drug trafficker, detailed the modus operandi of the alleged monthly payments given to García Luna by the Sinaloa cartel in exchange for his protection and information.

There is no evidence, responded the defense, which will seek to discredit the testimonies of former traffickers protected by the United States such as Villarreal, nicknamed “El Grande.”

Former Mexican Secretary of Public Security, Genaro García Luna became an ally of the drug cartels. Photo: EFE

Seek hidden fortune

In Mexico, the leftist president Andrés Manuel López Obrador also reported that Mexico tries to recover in a US court some 700 million dollars allegedly embezzled by García Luna, while Washington sets its sights on bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.

García Luna, already as a former minister and at the head of private companies, benefited from important state contracts during the government of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), according to independent journalist Francisco Cruz, author of a biography of the defendant. The Mexican lawsuit was filed on September 21, 2021 in Florida against 39 companies belonging to García Luna or those close to him, explained Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.

López Obrador has raised “three hypotheses”: that García Luna “is not guilty” and “they have to release him.” “It would be a fiasco, especially the agencies and the government of the United States would be very bad,” he said. The second is that he acted alone and the third, that he had “the license” from Presidents Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) and Vicente Fox (2000-2006) with whom he worked.

López Obrador intends to embody a break with his “conservative” predecessors.

In August 2021, he organized a referendum to ask Mexicans if they supported prosecuting five former presidents for alleged crimes. 90% said yes, although the participating population reached only 8%.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador reported that Mexico seeks to recover an amount of 700 million dollars embezzled by Genaro García. Photo: W Radio

Received millionaire bribe

Arrested in December 2019 in Dallas, Texas, 54-year-old García Luna was a direct interlocutor with Washington when he was the security czar for Mexican President Felipe Calderón.

The so-called “super cop” “received millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel in exchange for providing protection for his drug trafficking activity,” the US Department of Justice accused in 2020. He faces a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison. and even a possible life sentence as “el Chapo” Guzmán.

Source-larepublica.pe