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Beleaguered prosecutors in Mexico take another hit


By Hugh Dellios
Tribune foreign correspondent

July 14, 2005

MEXICO CITY -- Many, many Mexicans thought they saw Rene Bejarano getting caught red-handed taking bribes. Now they have learned they didn't.

The former top aide to Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador walked out of jail last week after a judge dismissed money laundering charges against him despite a secretly recorded video that showed him taking tens of thousands of dollars from a city contractor and stuffing it into suitcases and his jacket pockets.

The video--first broadcast on a morning television news show whose host is a clown--ignited a corruption scandal last year that tainted the popular mayor's presidential ambitions. But the judge ruled last week that the attorney general's office didn't have enough evidence to prove the criminal charges.

The ruling was another embarrassment for Mexico's federal prosecutors. At a time when security and justice top the public's worries, judges also have rebuffed prosecutors in high-profile cases against the son of a reputed narco-trafficker and an alleged narco-spy in the president's office.

Last week, President Vicente Fox's chief spokesman prematurely announced that federal agents had arrested a man believed to be a drug kingpin. The man--identified by his family as a respected architect--was later released, and the attorney general's office now faces widespread pressure to issue an apology.

Justice system under fire

The prosecution failures have dealt another blow to Mexicans' faith in their justice system. Just two months ago, Fox dismissed his attorney general and vowed to clean house after ordering the dismissal of abuse-of-power charges against Lopez Obrador, which had led to massive street protests.

Though Bejarano and his supporters insist he was the innocent victim of a conspiracy, his release has raised eyebrows after what Mexicans saw on the videotape.

"What more proof do they want?" asked Enrique Hernandez, 32, an accountant shopping at a pharmacy. "There's always been impunity for the powerful, but now you can see it in plain view."

Atty. Gen. Daniel Cabeza de la Vaca defended his office's performance at a news conference Monday, rejecting the perception that prosecutors had fumbled too many cases and saying each setback had to be analyzed separately.

Named to the post in April, Cabeza de la Vaca said that 97 of every 100 federal cases presented to a judge have resulted in convictions--"higher than in the majority of developed countries."

"These aren't easy issues," he said. "We are fighting against criminals who have armies of lawyers, people highly prepared who they have brought in from everywhere."

Training criticized

But some legal experts contend that the federal government has been presenting weak or faulty cases because it hasn't put enough priority on training and preparing prosecutors and investigators. Some say the office has been overtly used for political or public-opinion purposes.

The lost cases "put into relief that investigations are being done in a very clumsy manner," said Raul Carranca y Rivas, a law professor at the Autonomous National University of Mexico.

Others say the losses reflect a judiciary that has become far more independent of the government since Fox ousted the authoritarian Institutional Revolutionary Party from the presidency in 2000.

Last month, a judge rejected prosecutors' request to charge the son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the country's most wanted narcotics trafficker, with receiving illicit drug money. The son is now in jail pending other charges.

The same judge earlier dismissed federal charges against Fox's former travel coordinator, Nahum Acosta Lugo, who was accused of passing information to drug traffickers.

The Guzman ruling led to an unusual public allegation by Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, that the judge was "influenced" by drug traffickers and was giving them favorable treatment. The judge, Jose Luiz Gomez Martinez, responded that the government was trying to make him the scapegoat for its prosecutors' weak cases.

In the case of the man mistaken for a drug lord, the attorney general said the incriminating information came from two witnesses under the protective custody of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. He said officials were still investigating and therefore couldn't apologize.

The Bejarano video became the center of a flurry of finger-pointing and competing political conspiracy theories.

The mayoral aide denied wrongdoing, saying he had been trapped into taking the money by the contractor and political rivals within his own Democratic Revolutionary Party. He also accused rivals and television executives of trying to undermine his boss, the mayor.

Bejarano said the money was used for election campaign purposes. Now facing only minor charges of electoral crimes, he said he had to borrow money to pay for bail before he was freed.

The contractor, Carlos Ahumada, said he made the videotape and delivered it to the television network to prove he was being extorted into giving bribes to the city government. He remains in jail.

On the streets, many Mexicans are shaking their heads.

"He [Bejarano] was filling his pockets," said Antonia del Real, 39, a teacher. "Our eyes don't lie to us."