Analysis: Arrest of ex-army chief puts Mexican president's plans under siege
By Drazen Jorgic and Dave Graham
By Drazen Jorgic and Dave Graham
© Reuters/Daniel Becerril FILE PHOTO: Mexico's then Defense Minister General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda attends a flag-raising ceremony honouring the victims of the September 1985 and 2017 earthquakes at Zocalo square in Mexico City, Mexico
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The spectacular fall from grace of Mexico's previous armed forces supremo has raised awkward questions about the president's reliance on the military to fight drug gangs and manage an increasing portfolio of vital civilian infrastructure.
Thursday's arrest of former Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos in the United States at the Los Angeles airport on drug trafficking charges sent shockwaves through the political establishment and embarrassed a once highly trusted institution.
It threatens to sour government relations with the military, which since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador assumed power in December 2018 has been tasked not just with reducing violence, but also managing ports and even building an airport.
"He has placed his entire political capital on making his political project work through the armed forces," said Falko Ernst, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group. "If he steers away from that, there's no one else to turn to right now. He doesn't have many other options left."
Lopez Obrador responded to the Cienfuegos arrest by vowing to root out military corruption - a promise which sits uneasily with the faith he previously put in Mexico's generals.
Now the same military leaders the president is counting on to pacify Mexico after years of gang violence may end up sidelined in top civilian security appointments, officials say.
Before Cienfuegos' detention, speculation was growing that Lopez Obrador would appoint a general to replace Security Minister Alfonso Durazo, who has flagged his intention to run for the governorship of the northern state of Sonora in 2021.
"This is a game changer," said a senior Mexican police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Lopez Obrador would have to "pay a high political price" to put a military figure in charge of the civilian body, the official added.
Then there is the question of bad blood.
Charging Cienfuegos, who ran the army from 2012-18, with the very crime he was meant to be rooting out risks shaking a key pillar of the Mexican state to its core - and incurring its wrath, another government official said.
"The army won't take this too well," said the official.
Lopez Obrador on Friday resoundingly backed Cienfuegos' successor at the head of the army and his counterpart in the navy, saying he had personally vetted them and vouched for their honesty.
Generals have been locked up on drugs charges before.
But the arrest of the army's one-time chieftain by a foreign power is a heavy blow to the prestige of an institution that has prided itself as the principal guarantor of stability in the country since the Mexican Revolution a century ago.
In part this is because successive Mexican presidents, who can only serve a single six-year term, have opted to chop and change alternative, civilian police institutions rather than build on what their predecessors began, critics say.
Yet that was often a reaction to the perceived corruption inside those bodies, as evinced by the December 2019 arrest of former Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna by U.S. officials for allegedly taking bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.
Garcia Luna denies the charges. Ironically, Lopez Obrador said the arrest of Cienfuegos flowed from that probe.
NEGATIVE SPIRAL
Lack of civilian alternatives to the military risks creating a negative long-term spiral, analysts say.
Alejandro Hope, a former Mexican intelligence official, said if security is handed over to the military, there is no point in investing in the training of civilian commanders.
"After a few years, there are no civilian commanders to turn to and there is no alternative but to leave the responsibility to the military," he wrote in the El Universal newspaper.
Once an outspoken critic of the military himself, Lopez Obrador has bolstered the armed forces' economic interests by tasking the army to build a $3.2 billion airport for Mexico City. He has also ordered the navy to take over the running of key ports that Mexican cartels have infiltrated.
In his political declarations, Lopez Obrador is often at pains to exalt the esprit de corps and probity of the army, despite ample past evidence of corruption.
Some people close to the government were even privately celebrating Cienfuegos' detention, saying it only confirmed their suspicions about rot in the military.
"This breaks with the historic pact of impunity that protected the army," said a senior member of the president's ruling party, the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA).
In a sign of the U.S. mistrust in Mexican officials, the government in Mexico City was not kept in the loop about details of Cienfuegos' alleged crimes or the timing of the arrest. Officials expressed shock and amazement about the news.
"There was no knowledge of it in security areas," one senior government official told Reuters.
(Reporting by Drazen Jorgic and Dave Graham; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Leslie Adler)
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The spectacular fall from grace of Mexico's previous armed forces supremo has raised awkward questions about the president's reliance on the military to fight drug gangs and manage an increasing portfolio of vital civilian infrastructure.
Thursday's arrest of former Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos in the United States at the Los Angeles airport on drug trafficking charges sent shockwaves through the political establishment and embarrassed a once highly trusted institution.
It threatens to sour government relations with the military, which since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador assumed power in December 2018 has been tasked not just with reducing violence, but also managing ports and even building an airport.
"He has placed his entire political capital on making his political project work through the armed forces," said Falko Ernst, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group. "If he steers away from that, there's no one else to turn to right now. He doesn't have many other options left."
Lopez Obrador responded to the Cienfuegos arrest by vowing to root out military corruption - a promise which sits uneasily with the faith he previously put in Mexico's generals.
Now the same military leaders the president is counting on to pacify Mexico after years of gang violence may end up sidelined in top civilian security appointments, officials say.
Before Cienfuegos' detention, speculation was growing that Lopez Obrador would appoint a general to replace Security Minister Alfonso Durazo, who has flagged his intention to run for the governorship of the northern state of Sonora in 2021.
"This is a game changer," said a senior Mexican police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Lopez Obrador would have to "pay a high political price" to put a military figure in charge of the civilian body, the official added.
Then there is the question of bad blood.
Charging Cienfuegos, who ran the army from 2012-18, with the very crime he was meant to be rooting out risks shaking a key pillar of the Mexican state to its core - and incurring its wrath, another government official said.
"The army won't take this too well," said the official.
Lopez Obrador on Friday resoundingly backed Cienfuegos' successor at the head of the army and his counterpart in the navy, saying he had personally vetted them and vouched for their honesty.
Generals have been locked up on drugs charges before.
But the arrest of the army's one-time chieftain by a foreign power is a heavy blow to the prestige of an institution that has prided itself as the principal guarantor of stability in the country since the Mexican Revolution a century ago.
In part this is because successive Mexican presidents, who can only serve a single six-year term, have opted to chop and change alternative, civilian police institutions rather than build on what their predecessors began, critics say.
Yet that was often a reaction to the perceived corruption inside those bodies, as evinced by the December 2019 arrest of former Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna by U.S. officials for allegedly taking bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.
Garcia Luna denies the charges. Ironically, Lopez Obrador said the arrest of Cienfuegos flowed from that probe.
NEGATIVE SPIRAL
Lack of civilian alternatives to the military risks creating a negative long-term spiral, analysts say.
Alejandro Hope, a former Mexican intelligence official, said if security is handed over to the military, there is no point in investing in the training of civilian commanders.
"After a few years, there are no civilian commanders to turn to and there is no alternative but to leave the responsibility to the military," he wrote in the El Universal newspaper.
Once an outspoken critic of the military himself, Lopez Obrador has bolstered the armed forces' economic interests by tasking the army to build a $3.2 billion airport for Mexico City. He has also ordered the navy to take over the running of key ports that Mexican cartels have infiltrated.
In his political declarations, Lopez Obrador is often at pains to exalt the esprit de corps and probity of the army, despite ample past evidence of corruption.
Some people close to the government were even privately celebrating Cienfuegos' detention, saying it only confirmed their suspicions about rot in the military.
"This breaks with the historic pact of impunity that protected the army," said a senior member of the president's ruling party, the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA).
In a sign of the U.S. mistrust in Mexican officials, the government in Mexico City was not kept in the loop about details of Cienfuegos' alleged crimes or the timing of the arrest. Officials expressed shock and amazement about the news.
"There was no knowledge of it in security areas," one senior government official told Reuters.
(Reporting by Drazen Jorgic and Dave Graham; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Who Is Salvador Cienfuegos? Former Mexican Defense Secretary Arrested in U.S. on Drug-Related Charges
General Salvador Cienfuegos, who served as the defense secretary for former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, has been arrested on drug trafficking and money laundering charges, according to U.S. and Mexican sources, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
General Salvador Cienfuegos, who served as the defense secretary for former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, has been arrested on drug trafficking and money laundering charges, according to U.S. and Mexican sources, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
© Shannon Stapleton-Pool/Getty Images Salvador Cienfuegos (left), Mexico's former defense secretary, speaking at an official reception on April 24, 2014 in Mexico City, Mexico. Cienfuegos was arrested Thursday on drug-related charges.
Cienfuegos was detained Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport under a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warrant.
Cienfuegos, 72, who has retired from active military service, led Mexico's army from 2012 to 2018 during Nieto's presidency.
Mexican Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, noted on Twitter: "I have been informed by Ambassador Christopher Landau of the United States that the former Secretary of National Defense, General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, has been detained at the Los Angeles Airport, California.
"The Consul in Los Angeles will be informing me of the charges in the next few hours. We will offer the consular assistance to which you are entitled. I keep you posted," he noted in another tweet.
Cienfuegos is the highest-ranking former Cabinet official to be arrested since top Mexican security official Genaro Garcia Luna was arrested in Texas in 2019.
Garcia Luna is on trial in New York on suspicion of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from a drug cartel formerly led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, which he was tasked with combating, Reuters reported.
While Cienfuegos was in charge, the Mexican army was accused of frequent human rights abuses. Among the incidents reported during his service was the 2014 military killing of suspected drug gang members.
The incident, which took place in June 2014, involved soldiers who killed 22 suspects at a warehouse in the town of Tlatlaya in southern Mexico.
Some suspects were reported to have died during an initial shootout. But a human rights investigation later revealed around eight to 12 suspects were executed after they had surrendered.
Last month, arrest warrants were also issued in Mexico for soldiers in connection with the kidnapping and alleged killing of 43 students in 2014 in a town known for heroin trafficking.
Mike Vigil, the DEA's former chief of international operations, heard about corruption allegations around Cienfuegos when he was in Mexico in 2012.
"There were always allegations of corruption, nothing we could sink our teeth into. That was kind of unheard of because Mexico has always put the military on a pedestal.
"The corruption is just coming to roost, because individuals who were once untouchable are now getting arrested.
"It's really a precarious situation for Mexico to have two Cabinet-level officials arrested in the U.S.," Vigil said.
Cienfuegos was detained Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport under a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warrant.
Cienfuegos, 72, who has retired from active military service, led Mexico's army from 2012 to 2018 during Nieto's presidency.
Mexican Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, noted on Twitter: "I have been informed by Ambassador Christopher Landau of the United States that the former Secretary of National Defense, General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, has been detained at the Los Angeles Airport, California.
"The Consul in Los Angeles will be informing me of the charges in the next few hours. We will offer the consular assistance to which you are entitled. I keep you posted," he noted in another tweet.
Cienfuegos is the highest-ranking former Cabinet official to be arrested since top Mexican security official Genaro Garcia Luna was arrested in Texas in 2019.
Garcia Luna is on trial in New York on suspicion of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from a drug cartel formerly led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, which he was tasked with combating, Reuters reported.
While Cienfuegos was in charge, the Mexican army was accused of frequent human rights abuses. Among the incidents reported during his service was the 2014 military killing of suspected drug gang members.
The incident, which took place in June 2014, involved soldiers who killed 22 suspects at a warehouse in the town of Tlatlaya in southern Mexico.
Some suspects were reported to have died during an initial shootout. But a human rights investigation later revealed around eight to 12 suspects were executed after they had surrendered.
Last month, arrest warrants were also issued in Mexico for soldiers in connection with the kidnapping and alleged killing of 43 students in 2014 in a town known for heroin trafficking.
Mike Vigil, the DEA's former chief of international operations, heard about corruption allegations around Cienfuegos when he was in Mexico in 2012.
"There were always allegations of corruption, nothing we could sink our teeth into. That was kind of unheard of because Mexico has always put the military on a pedestal.
"The corruption is just coming to roost, because individuals who were once untouchable are now getting arrested.
"It's really a precarious situation for Mexico to have two Cabinet-level officials arrested in the U.S.," Vigil said.
CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and MARÍA VERZA,
Associated Press•October 16, 2020
Mexico-General-Arrested
FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 15, 2017, file photo, Mexico's Defense Secretary Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda gestures as U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis listens during a reception ceremony in Mexico City. Mexico's top diplomat says the country's former defense secretary, Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, has been arrested in Los Angeles. Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard wrote Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020 in his Twitter account that U.S. Ambassador Christopher Landau had informed him of Cienfuegos' arrest. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The arrest of Mexico’s former defense minister in the United States on charges that he protected a drug cartel in exchange for bribes is a blow to Mexico’s military, one of the few institutions that had maintained the confidence of the people.
Until Thursday’s arrest of retired Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos at Los Angeles International Airport, the military was still respected by virtue of appearing to be largely above the corruption commonly seen in other pieces of Mexico’s security apparatus, despite documented human rights abuses.
For Mexico’s last three presidents at least, the military was the security force that could be deployed against the country’s powerful drug cartels. U.S. prosecutors’ allegations that Cienfuegos was nicknamed “the Godfather” and carried on direct conversations with the leader of a violent cartel moving cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin into the United States led many Mexicans to wonder: what now?
“Now we’re in a really complicated situation because now nobody can help us,” said Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, an associate professor with George Mason University. “You can’t argue anymore that you’re going to send in the army because it’s the least corrupted institution. It’s the same or more corrupt than the others.”
Cienfuegos was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport Thursday at the request of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. He was scheduled to make an initial appearance in court via video call Friday afternoon and to eventually be transferred to New York where the case originated.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday that his ambassador to the United States Martha Bárcena told him two weeks ago that there was an investigation underway there involving Cienfuegos, who had been Mexico’s top military official during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto from 2012 to 2018.
López Obrador said Cienfuegos’ arrest was “regrettable.”
“This is an unmistakable example of the decomposition of the government, of how civil service was degrading, the government service during the neoliberal period,” López Obrador said. He said there was no drug-related investigation of Cienfuegos in Mexico.
He offered a vote of confidence to current military leaders asserting that the leaders of the army and navy that he selected are “incorruptible.”
But the allegations against Cienfuegos are sure to spur doubt that anyone is.
According to documents filed by U.S. prosecutors, Cienfuegos helped a drug trafficking organization dubbed the “H-2 cartel,” by ensuring military operations weren’t conducted against them, acting against their rivals, introducing cartel leaders to other corrupt officials and warning the cartel about U.S. investigations. In one case, his warning about U.S. use of confidential informants led to the murder of a cartel member leaders believed “incorrectly” was helping U.S. authorities.
Mexico's defense secretary is not just another Cabinet post. It’s equivalent to being king of an independent fiefdom. In Mexico there is an iron-clad agreement that the army doesn’t interfere in politics, and politicians — the president included — don’t interfere with the army’s internal affairs. The president doesn’t just choose a defense secretary — he chooses from a list of acceptable candidates that the generals submit.
López Obrador said Friday that the current leaders of the army and navy were not names Cienfuegos had recommended.
The power that Cienfuegos wielded led military analyst Juan Ibarrola, who often expresses the army point of view, to express disbelief in an interview with W Radio Friday.
“A secretary general can't be a criminal, can't participate in the sale or distribution of drugs, or anything like that, it isn't necessary, they don't need it,” Ibarrola said. Until proven otherwise, he said Cienfuegos had an impeccable military career.
Mexico’s reliance on its military has only grown under López Obrador. He has entrusted it with not only leading the government’s ongoing fight with drug cartels, but also with stopping rampant fuel pipeline theft, building major infrastructure projects and being the backbone of the new, ostensibly civilian, National Guard.
“It’s a time when the president has put an enormous amount of trust and responsibility in the hands of the armed forces under the argument that they are more trustworthy and that it is the cleaner institution and yet what this case shows is corruption can go to any level,” said Maureen Meyer, vice president for programs and director for Mexico and migrant rights at the Washington Office on Latin America.
While López Obrador talks daily, including Friday, about corruption being at the root of all of Mexico’s problems, the biggest catches of his term have so far come across the border in the United States.
Cienfuegos, 72, is the second former Mexican cabinet official arrested in the U.S. on drug charges in the past year.
Genaro García Luna was arrested last year in Texas on drug trafficking charges. U.S. prosecutors allege he took tens of millions of dollars in bribes to protect Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel. He had served as Mexico’s Secretary of Public Security from 2006 to 2012 under then-President Felipe Calderon. He pleaded not guilty earlier this month to drug trafficking charges in a federal court in New York.
The García Luna case and now Cienfuegos would represent 12 straight years of corruption at the highest levels of Mexico's security efforts, Meyer said.
Cienfuegos is not the first general arrested for involvement with drug traffickers. Gen. Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo was made Mexico’s drug czar by President Ernesto Zedillo in 1996. He was arrested the following year after it was discovered he was living in a luxury apartment owned by the leader of the Juarez cartel, Amado Carrillo Fuentes.
Under Cienfuegos, Mexico continued its pursuit of the war on the drug cartels launched under Calderon. Guzman was captured twice while Cienfuegos was in command — in 2014 and 2016 — but the army was not directly involved in either. There was talk at the time that the DEA had more confidence in Mexico’s marines for acting on the most sensitive intelligence.
A Colombian drug trafficker testified early last year at Guzman’s U.S. trial that the kingpin had boasted about paying a $100 million bribe to Peña Nieto to call off the hunt for him. Peña Nieto’s spokesman denied the accusation.
Mexico’s Defense Department had no immediate reaction to Cienfuegos’ arrest.
Samuel González, who founded Mexico’s special prosecutor’s office for organized crime in the 1990s, said that the prosecutions of Guzman, García Luna and now Cienfuegos illustrate that “it’s really a trial against all the cartels and the ties between public servants and the cartels.”
“It is a very powerful paradigm change,” he said. “In the United States they are getting into the entire security area and it’s the first time they’re doing it. Are they going to get into the political protection and arrive at an ex-president? It looks like the prosecutors in New York want to get into the political arena.”
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AP writers Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.
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