Mexico president wants US evidence against ex-defense chief
Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday his government will ask United States authorities to share all information about the alleged links between Mexico’s former defense secretary and drug traffickers.
Retired Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos was arrested Thursday at
Los Angeles International Aiport. The next day, prosecutors released documents
alleging that Cienfuegos protected and aided a drug cartel moving cocaine,
heroin and methamphetamine to the U.S.
“Show us those operations of complicity if they have the
proof,” López Obrador said. Only then will Mexico open its own investigation.
“We can’t allow someone to be judged only for political or other reasons if
there is no proof.”
The president added though that there would not be impunity
for anyone who committed wrongdoing.
Cienfuegos served as defense secretary under ex-President
Enrique Peña Nieto from 2012 to 2018. U.S. prosecutors allege that during that
time, he was helping a drug trafficking organization dubbed the “H2” cartel,
though in Mexico it was considered a remnant of the Beltran Leyva organization,
a once-powerful cartel that splintered after the arrests or deaths of its
founders.
The allegations rattled Mexico, where the armed forces are
among the last institutions widely trusted by the public when it comes to
corruption.
Fighting corruption has been López Obrador’s favorite topic
in office, but he has also vested more responsibility in the military than any
other Mexican president in recent history. On Monday, he remained protective of
the institution.
López Obrador said that as commander-in-chief, he would be
the only spokesman for the government on the matter.
Cienfuegos was scheduled to make a second court appearance
in Los Angeles Tuesday before being transferred to New York, where the case is
based.
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