Mexico president takes aim at predecessor after U.S. court convicts drug czar


Mexico's President Lopez Obrador speaks on the third anniversary of his government in Mexico City

Wed, February 22, 2023

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Wednesday that one of his predecessors, Felipe Calderon, should explain whether he knew a former top law enforcement official took bribes from the infamous Sinaloa Cartel.

On Tuesday, a U.S. court convicted a former security official, Genaro Garcia Luna, on charges that he took bribes in exchange for protection from arrest, safe passage for drug shipments and tip-offs about law enforcement operations.

Garcia Luna, 54, is one of the highest-ranking Mexican officials ever accused of ties to drug trafficking. He led Mexico's Federal Investigation Agency from 2001 to 2005 and was public security minister for six years until 2012.

Calderon was president from 2006 to 2012.

"Yes, it's important to find out more: why did Calderon have (Garcia Luna) in place for six years?" Lopez Obrador said during his regular morning news conference. "He never saw anything strange? What were the agreements? What orders did he give?

Calderon issued a statement on Twitter after the conviction saying that his administration followed the law, and that security was not the responsibility of only one person but also the military, police and other officials.

(Reporting by Raul Cortes Fernandez and Ana Isabel Martinez; Editing by Richard Chang)