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Rejecting the charges General Salvador Cienfuegos was accused of and sending him back to Mexico is an unprecedented move by any US government. The decision marks a turning point in the relationship between the two countries.
If 2020 has shown anything, it is that anything can happen. The latest media attack in Mexico erupted this week, when in a moment as historic as it was unprecedented, a New York judge granted the US government’s unusual request to dismiss the charges against the general and former defense minister. Salvador Cienfuegos, arrested on 15. October. He has already been released and sent to his country. Yes, the military officer accused and arrested for allegedly being the head of one of the most violent drug cartels is already on Mexican soil and his arrival opens up one of the most important challenges for highly contested local justice.
See more: The Mexican Senate approves the decriminalization of marijuana use
Cienfuegos is not just a military man. During his career he has been in the highest positions to which one can aspire, to the point of becoming one of the symbols of the Mexican army. “The Secretary of Defense in Mexico is a guy who not only runs the army and is a military man, but reports directly to the president. There is no one above him except the president ”, he assured The New York Times Jorge Castañeda, former Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The truth is that once again the war on drugs is intertwining the United States and the Central American country in a dark game of interests.
The charges he was charged with were drug trafficking and money laundering for helping the H-2 cartel “transfer thousands of pounds of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana to the United States” between 2015 and 2017, in exchange for millionaire bribes. These crimes are punishable with a minimum of 10 years’ imprisonment and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
However, the dismissal invalidates any investigation or suspicion of you. The general is far from condemned, starting with the fact that some from Mexican territory question the capabilities of the US authorities. “Criminal investigations in the United States don’t mean they’re truthful. And this is part of an impact on diplomatic relations between two countries that should be better understood “, he assured Sun from Mexico Javier Oliva Posada, research professor at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the UNAM.
See more: The United States withdraws charges from General Cienfuegos to investigate in Mexico
Santiago Roel, director of the Semáforo Delictivo organization, assured this newspaper: “The army in Mexico is strong and has been very present for about 14 years until today because this fight against the black drug market has been exacerbated. All this imposed by the United States. There are many links between the Mexican Army and the Navy, which have a good reputation, with US agencies such as the DEA. It is a very bloody and stupid war, because the market is fought with economic principles, not with bullets, which we have not understood ”.
Because beyond the innocence or the guilt of the general, we must take into account the rarity of the diplomatic operation carried out by the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to bring Cienfuegos back. Much stranger is the US decision to release it. “Now the general and all his secrets are returning home for unclear reasons. The DEA and the Department of Justice investigators must be more than furious now, ”Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) security and defense expert Adam Isacson wrote on his Twitter account.
What’s behind such an anomaly? For Roel, everything revolves around a game of internal pressures. “I think all of this stems from a rebellion within the high command of the Mexican army. He felt betrayed by the DEA, by the president, who attacked them when he learned of the arrest. Nobody knew what would happen. I think that’s where the high pressure from the army high command comes from with a very simple message: either release the general or stop cooperating with the DEA. Faced with such a strong rebellion, the Mexican government only had to explain to the United States ”.
For the expert, the DEA needs the Mexican army to continue the war against drug trafficking in the Central American country. “The DEA doesn’t want it because it plays a very perverse game in the world, especially in countries like Colombia or Mexico. Instead of solving the problem in a rational and humane way, such as the regulation of psychoactive substances, he insists on a gunfight, but it is absurd. To continue the game, they must have the support of the Mexican army, so they decide to free Cienfuegos because the cost would be very high, “he said.
Garfias agrees with Roel and added that ruling party Senator Morena Ricardo Monreal admitted that the general’s arrest could have caused unease among the national army elite. Of course, eyes are now on the effectiveness of the Mexican judicial system, criticized for both its high levels of impunity and corruption.
The matter is sensitive, as voices across the country warn that the case could be clouded dramatically. The country ranks 60 out of 69 in a global impunity index prepared by the Private University of the Americas, which measures variables such as corruption by the authorities, the number of people awaiting sentencing and the number of judges per 100,000 inhabitants. However, the authorities have already warned that they will act with complete rigor and transparency. “There is confidence in both the United States and Mexico that the corresponding investigation will be conducted with the highest standards of effectiveness and honesty,” Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Thursday.
Now all eyes are on the Attorney General’s office, who will be tasked with carrying out an unprecedented investigation in Mexico. “We have no doubts that the FGR will carry out, under the direction of Dr. Alejandro Gertz Manero, an investigation worthy of the prestige of Mexico and the dignity of our country”, stressed Ebrard.
What can happen now? Juan Velásquez, who was an adviser to General Cienfuegos during Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration, told the columnist of Excelsior Yuriria Sierra: “The Attorney General’s Office has a file that the United States sent him with 700 pages in which there is allegedly evidence against Cienfuegos. If the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic considers that this evidence is sufficient to bring Cienfuegos to trial, then it would require an arrest warrant from a judge in Mexico (…) They would take him to a military prison and prosecute him in civil jurisdiction, in civil, non-military federal jurisdiction “.
Of course, the case reaches a corroded judicial system with no credibility, so a possible sentence in favor of the general, even if innocent, would be problematic for the government of López Obrador. “No thoughtful analysis is needed to assume that the investigation to be followed in Mexico is the shortest route to exemption. For now, the foreign minister has already told us that Cienfuegos has been repatriated as a “free citizen” and the president assures us that there have been no secret pacts or exchanges of anything, “he said in a column published by Excelsior Francisco Garfias.
Roel, for his part, assured: “There is no independent and effective judiciary in Mexico, it is one of the great failures of the Mexican political system. Judging a character of this height has never happened and now less with US pressure. López Obrador relied on the army, so it won’t happen. There has always been a suspicion that lead reaches all levels, organized crime by definition works hand in hand with authority, for silver or lead. We will no longer know how great the evidence against the general was, so there will always be suspicions ”.
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