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Mexico senator takes leave amid scandal
Ricardo Monreal
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Gregory Bull / Associated Press
Sen. Ricardo Monreal of Zacatecas state, seen here in 2006, said he must
step aside until an investigation is completed.
Senator Ricardo Monreal of Zacatecas steps down temporarily to clear his
name after an official acknowledges an investigation into a family property
where tons of marijuana was found.
By Tracy Wilkinson
May 21, 2009
Reporting from Mexico City -- The Mexican senator at the center of an ugly
drug scandal temporarily stepped down Wednesday, saying he welcomed an
investigation he expects will clear his name.
Coming six weeks before national midterm elections, the allegations
involving 14 1/2 tons of marijuana found on property belonging to the
senator's family have inflamed suspicions widely held by Mexicans that many
politicians are in cahoots with powerful drug traffickers.
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Reputed up-and-coming Mexico drug cartel figure held
Sen. Ricardo Monreal of Zacatecas state has acknowledged that the property
where the pot was found, in a pepper-drying warehouse, belongs to one of
his brothers. But he claims the drug was planted by political rivals.
Monreal is a former governor of Zacatecas, and another brother, David, is
mayor of the city, Fresnillo, where the warehouse is located and is a
likely candidate in separate elections for the governorship next year.
Mexican Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont confirmed that the Monreal
property was under investigation after the Jan. 22 raid. With that, a rare
public acknowledgment of an ongoing investigation, Sen. Monreal said he had
to step aside for a three-week period while the probe runs its course.
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"I cannot remain quiet, nor permit that the men and women of Mexico think
all of us politicians are alike," Monreal said. "That we all hide behind
constitutional protection to avail ourselves of impunity and corruption. I
will not form part of that mafia."
That is, in fact, exactly what many Mexicans think of their political
elite. Despite years of rumors and allegations that a number of senior
political figures have colluded with or been paid off by traffickers, few,
if any, are ever prosecuted or jailed, and in fact they often continue
unimpeded in their political careers.
"At the least, the senator is covering up. When will our people learn to
deny the vote to those who don't deserve it?" read a letter to the editor
in the Reforma newspaper. The writer added that Mexican society was "hurt
and offended" by what he called cynical and criminal behavior.
It's not the first time Monreal has been dogged by such allegations. In the
late 1990s, rumors that his brothers were mixed up with traffickers cost
him his party's candidacy for the Zacatecas governorship. He quit the
Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, jumped to another party and won
the election anyway.
The taint of drug trafficking has touched nearly every political party in
Mexico. The PRI's national president, Beatriz Paredes, was quoted Wednesday
as saying she had submitted the names of several candidates to authorities
for vetting because of suspicions about them in some quarters. They
included the PRI's candidate for the governorship of Colima, Mario
Anguiano, whose brother is in jail on drug charges, Paredes told Reforma.
All were cleared, she added.
On July 5, Mexicans will vote nationwide for a new Chamber of Deputies, the
500-member lower house of Congress, and in six states for governor.
Monreal's difficulties now are also part of a political feud between his
family and that of Gov. Amalia Garcia, ultimately over control of Zacatecas
and the lucrative business that goes with it, analysts say.
Monreal and Garcia have been trading insults and accusations after people
in her government circulated a video highlighting the raid on the Monreal
property. Monreal retaliated and said last weekend's prison break in
Zacatecas, in which 53 narco hit men and others escaped, shows that
Garcia's government is working with criminal syndicates.
He went on to suggest that Garcia's allies had planted the marijuana on his
brother's farm as part of a "dirty war" against the family.
Garcia, who has acknowledged that the prison break was an inside job and
has arrested or fired dozens of prison officials, shot back that Monreal
was a "coward" grasping for more power.
As it happens, two of the escapees, Reynaldo Piņa Resendez and Jorge
Cervantes Rodriguez, are alleged gunmen with the Gulf cartel captured in
the raid that netted the marijuana on the Monreal property.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/latinamerica/la-fg-mexico-senator21-2009may21,0,4522992.story?track=rss
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