Mexican Prosecutor and Police Arrested for Providing Protection to Zetas

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Sun Feb 19, 2012 at 02:46:41 PM EST
Tags: (all tags)

Share This: Digg!

The U.S. has spent $900 million of its Meridia Initiative money on training of Mexican prosecutors and law enforcement and providing them equipment. The countries just announced another training program:

Proyecto Diamante [is] a comprehensive training program designed and developed jointly by the U.S. Department of Justice and Mexico's Procuraduria General de la Republica to train 2,500 PGR prosecutors and 6,000 investigators over the next 12 months in core competencies.

This week, a senior prosecutor in the Attorney General's Office (PGR) in Saltillo, Coahuila, Claudia Gonzalez Lopez, was among those arrested on organized crime charges of allegedly providing protection to the Zetas in exchange for large sums of money, paid monthly. The former police chief was also arrested. as was the head of the Special Investigations Group.

[More...]

The arrests are the product of an 11 month investigation by SIEDO, which began with the arrest of the No. 2 Zeta in Saltillo, Pedro Toga Lara aka "El Guacho. He began cooperating the day after his arrest and provided the dates and amount of payments. He also implicated an Army General and many soldiers.

I wonder if any of these prosecutors or cops attended our training programs.

I don't doubt that Mexico is serious about ending corruption. But should we be spending millions on training their cops and prosecutors before they've succeeded?

Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

a fair question. (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by cpinva on Mon Feb 20, 2012 at 12:33:47 PM EST

however, since the likelyhood of that success occuring within the next 100 years is pretty slim, you have to decide what level of corruption you're willing to accept, before spending the money for the program.

mexico, in its post-columbian state, has been a society fraught with corruption. this goes back to the conquistadors. it's going to take a very, very long time, before corruption is no longer considered the norm, but the exception.

in fairness, mexico is by no means unique, corruption-as-the-rule incorporates the whole mexican-latin america-south america zone. it all stems from pretty much the same sources: begin with the spanish conquest, add a heaping helping of US interference(political/military/corporate). heat to just below boiling, while stirring constantly. serves as many as you want.

since we (the US) has contributed to the culture of corruption endemic to our southern neighbors, i suppose it's only right that we get stuck with part of the bill for repairs.