August 4, 2001
Narco News 2001
Salinas
Again
Raul
Worried About Carlos
Narco-Clues
Reach to Expresident
By Carlos Ramirez
From El Financiero,
Mexico City
July 31, 2001
Translated by The Narco
News Bulletin
Carlos
Salinas is, like Ernesto Zedillo, another
expresident who is sufficiently worried.
The investigation by the Swiss Prosecutor
over the $120 million dollars of his brother Raul, that are now
frozen, could lead more toward Carlos than to his brother. The
principal clue that the Swiss investigators have is the clandestinely
recorded conversation that Raul had with their sister Adriana,
in which the "inconvenient brother" says that the money
belongs to Carlos. And the fear is located in the possibility
of proving, judicially, that it was money from narco-trafficking,
and not from businessmen, because then the Salinas brothers could
be called to justice in North America.
The matter could have some unexpected outcomes:
1. The
investigation of alleged money laundering by the narco in dollars
that later arrived in Swiss banks was made through Citibank,
the powerful consortium that made the deal to buy Banamex, a
bank that Carlos Salinas delivered preferentially to Roberto
Hernández. With the Swiss investigation taking shape,
the $12.5 billion dollar deal could be contaminated, and still
more when there are suspicions that Citibank has consciously
made deals to "triangulate" money from narco-trafficking.
In a text published last March in Insight
magazine, and reproduced in the weekly La Crisis, the
analyst and financial consultant Christopher Whalen reviewed
the scheme of moving money to wipe away its irregular origins.
It is suspected that Raul Salinas sold protection to the capo
Juan Garica Abrego, who was delivered by Zedillo to the United
States without going through normal extradition process, and
this money passed through the Banca Cremi bank and from here
went to Switzerland through Citibank.
In spite of the indifference by the US
government over the operations of Citibank linked to drug trafficking,
the Democratic minority in the US Senate conducted an investigation
titled "Private Banking and Money Laundering: A Study of
Opportunities and Vulnerabilities." The November 1999 report,
cited by Whalen, "details how Raul Salinas supposedly utilized
the banking system of the United States to launder millions of
dollars." In fact, Citibank violated internal regulations,
never verified the origin of Raul Salinas' deals nor the source
of his wealth. Until now, Raul has preferred to allege corruption
in the federal budget, not the laundering of narco-dollars.
The matter of money laundering has started
a fight between two investigation and espionage agencies: the
CIA and the DEA. One fo the banks used by the CIA for secret
transactions, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI),
appears in some of the operations of Raul Salinas. And as part
of his investigations of the espionage agency, the Kennedy assassination
and the Watergate case, the author Norman Mailer concluded in
1985 that "half the Swiss banks are currently controlled
by agents, sectors, wings, arms, committees, counsels, operators
and officials of the CIA." One source in the DEA confirmed
to Whalen that the Justice Department did have an open investigation
against Citibank for the alleged money laundering of Raul Salinas
but that it was blocked.
2. When
he was at the peak of power, Raul Salinas reveled in his relations
with the powerful. Whalen stated the complicities of the Salinas
brothers with the Bush family and the personal relation of Carlos
Salinas with expresident Bush. "Raul Salinas has said to
investigators (of his case in Switzerland) that Jeb and Columba
Bush - Governor of Florida and younger brother of the current
U.S. president George W. - that he had accompanied them three
times to vacations in his hacienda in Las Mendocinas. This was
the same property where the scandalous 1990 party by narco-traffickers,
among them Garcia Abrego.
3. Once
it would be proved that the money deposited in Switzerland did
have some origin in money laundering from drug trafficking, the
Swiss authorities will be obligated to extend the investigation
toward expresident Carlos Salinas. The justification would be
the conversation taped between Raul and his sister Adriana at
the end of the last presidential term of Zedillo, in which Raul
said that the money under suspicion was property of Carlos Salinas.
Raul caused problems for himself with
this statement. His legal argument now lies in that his acceptance
of this money was a "loan" from important businessmen
to create investment projects in Mexico, even though he hid it
in Switzerland in accounts with false names, supported by passports
and licenses illegally made in Mexico. With the Swiss authorities
here, Raul accepted the possibility of corruption with public
monies. However, the Swiss Prosecutor counts with declarations
by witnesses who say that the money was the product of drug trafficking.
This is about a well-elaborated operation.
Raul, according to what was found in his conversation with his
sister Adriana, hid dirty money in Switzerland. The accounts
were opened with false names and these were supported by identification
documents made in Mexico. Raul got the passports "through
the secretary of Government on instructions from him (from Carlos
Salinas)." He added that Carlos Salinas "knew all the
movements, all the funds" and that the "money (in Switzerland)
is his."
In this context is found the criminal
lawsuit by the attorney of Carlos Salinas, Mariano Albor, against
officials of the Zedillo government over the clandestine tape-recording
and its delivery to Televisa for broadcast. If Carlos succeeds
in making this tape useless as evidence, then it cannot be used
against him.
4. The
root problem is located in the fact that Mexican authorities
of the past presidential term have not accused Raul Salinas of
laundering money from drug trafficking, but instead charged him
with illicit enrichment. But the presence, now, of Swiss authorities,
now that the PRI doesn't control the presidency of the Republic,
could obligate the Fox government to enter the matter of Narco-Salinism.
5.
However, there is plenty of skepticism. One veteran director
of the DEA told Whalen: "The bad thing is that Washington
has not wanted to act against the principal protectors of the
cartels. The key Mexican families are friends of important United
States leaders: summit meetings, fishing and hunting expeditions,
friendships between wives and children. They even use the same
clubs and lawyers."
Oh,
Brother