MEXICO CITY (AP) – A day after Mexico infuriated U.S. officials by publishing a full 751-page U.S. case against former Secretary of Defense Salvador Cienfuegos, the Mexican prosecutors who exonerated him released their own version, but with so many totally dark pages it was almost impossible to say what they had found.
The report released Sunday by the Attorney General’s Office of the Ministry of Mexico included a 226-page stretch with all pages off, followed shortly after by a 275-page stretch of off pages.
In the few sections with less wording, all names and images were turned off.
Officials appeared to be struggling to control the damage to the reputation of the judicial system after prosecutors took just five days to completely acquit retired General Cienfuegos of U.S. charges, backed by years of investigation, which helped drug traffickers in exchange for bribes.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Saturday dismissed the U.S. case as “invented” and his government released documentation that U.S. prosecutors sent when they left Cienfuegos as a diplomatic concession in Mexico and sent him to investigate. house.
The U.S. Department of Justice said releasing the full test report violated a legal aid treaty and questioned whether the U.S. can continue to share information.
This further worsened security relations forced by the Mexican government’s decision to restrict U.S. agents and remove their immunity even after Cienfuegos was returned home instead of being prosecuted in the United States.
The president said that while many Mexicans see American courts as “good, impeccable judges … in this case, with all due respect, those who did this investigation did not act professionally.”
In the recently published Mexican report, what was barely visible was that it involved asking the military to investigate whether the allegations were credible and relying on what Cienfuegos officially declared in revenue.
For example, one of the few documents readable is a report from an army communications officer (with the name spelled out) that says no army hunt had been officially assigned to Cienfuegos or anyone else.
The 751-page file that U.S. authorities shared with Mexico consists, in large part, of intercepting BlackBerry messaging exchanges between traffickers killed since then that describe relationships with a person they identify as Cienfuegos, often referring to to him with the nickname of “The Godfather”.
Lopez Obrador has leaned heavily in the military for a wide range of projects far beyond security, and his government apparently reacted to the military outrage over Cienfuegos’ arrest, complaining that U.S. officials had not been adequately informed of the case previously.
Cienfuegos was arrested in Los Angeles in October, but the U.S. government dropped his charges against him in November after Mexican officials threatened to restrict U.S. agents.
Documents published in the U.S. include alleged text messages intercepted between the Hay-cartel leader based in Nayarit state, on the Pacific coast, and a senior aide, who allegedly acted as an intermediary with the general.
In an exchange, Daniel Silva Garate told his boss, Juan Francisco Patrón Sánchez, that he had been picked up by men in short military-style cuts and taken to the headquarters of the Department of Defense in Mexico City for a meeting with “The Godfather. ”
Silva-Garate tells his boss that “The Godfather” told him “Now we’re going to do great things with you … that what you’ve done is short-lived.”
Patron Sanchez says he wants trouble-free routes to send drugs from Colombia and Silva Garate replies, “He says as long as he’s here, he’ll be free … they’ll never do heavy operations” or raids.
Silva Garate tells his boss that the “Godfather” told him that “you can sleep peacefully, no operation will touch you.”
Other exchanges describe El Padrí allegedly offering to organize a boat to help transport drugs, introducing traffickers to other officials and acknowledging having helped other traffickers in the past.