Second-ranking cardinal investigated for money laundering
The Procuraduría General de la República has started to investigate the country's second most senior cardinal, Juan Sandoval Iñiguez, the archbishop of Guadalajara, for alleged money laundering. Although the allegations against the cardinal were made by Jorge Carpizo, a former attorney-general, in May, the scandal took a new turn in mid-September when two newspapers (Reforma and Milenio) said that they had been offered leaked information from the investigation. Reforma was shown part of a letter from the PGR to the Comisión Bancaria y de Valores asking for information about movements in bank accounts and stock market accounts and dollar transfers in 1996.
Carpizo criticised the leaks. They allowed the cardinal to claim that there was a conspiracy against him and, Carpizo argued, undermined the investigation. The leaks asked for information, apparently about transactions carried out by two of Sandoval's key supporters, the gambling czar José María Guardia and a lawyer, José Antonio Ortega. Others involved in the investigation include the 11 brothers of the cardinal and the federal deputy Fernando Guzmán Pérez-Pelaez.
Carpizo and the cardinal have been wrangling with each other for 10 years. The cardinal accused Carpizo, who was attorney-general when Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo, Sandoval's predecessor as cardinal, was shot dead at Guadalajara airport in 1993. Carpizo ruled that he had been caught up in crossfire between two drug gangs: the Arellano Felix brothers' Cartel de Tijuana and the Joaquín `El Chapo' Guzmán's Cartel de Sinaloa.
The church rejects this view. It claims that Posadas Ocampo was not killed accidentally, as the government claims, but deliberately, because he had evidence linking the then-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari to the drug trade. The church claims that Carpizo as attorney-general effectively supervised the killing of Posadas Ocampo.
What is undeniable is that the murder of Posadas Ocampo has some odd facets. The most obvious is why the Arellano Félix brothers were allowed to visit the papal nuncio in Mexico City without being arrested. The head of the other gang, Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, embarrassed the authorities in Jalisco, whose capital is Guadalajara, by escaping from a high security jail in the state in 2001.
What gives the spat an edge is that Sandoval and his family are on the far-right of the Mexican political spectrum. The spat has also opened up fissures in the Partido Acción Nacional, traditionally a clericalist party. The new environment minister, Alberto Cárdenas Jiménez, who was governor of the state of Jalisco, said that he was saddened by the injustice being done to the cardinal. He said that he knew the cardinal to be of the utmost probity.
On the other side of divide in the PAN are the pragmatists, notably Diego Fernández de Cevallos and Antonio Lozano Garcia. Fernández de Cevallos was a the PAN's candidate for the presidency in 1994. Lozano was President Zedillo's token panista in his cabinet. Lozano made a spectacular mess of investigating whether President Salinas' brother, Raúl, had bumped off his (former) brother-in-law Francisco Ruiz Massieu. Ruiz Massieu would probably have been Zedillo's first interior minister. Lozano paid witches for (worthless) evidence about where his officials should look for evidence to incriminate Raúl Salinas.
Carpizo himself is a one man Mexican establishment. He has served as interior minister, on the supreme court and as well as being attorney-general. He has also been ambassador to France. Carpizo represents the strong strain of anti-clericalism in Mexico. He commented, when Sandoval wanted the PGR to clear him before it investigated him, that the cardinal wanted the absolutism of the 19th century stretched into the 21st century. Carpizo added that it was odd that Sandoval was making such a fuss, because everyone is presumed innocent.
The current Procurador General de la República himself, General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, denied claims by the cardinal's supporters that the investigation was planting evidence against him. The General claimed that during his time in office there had been no planting of evidence against anyone. The cardinal refused to back down and claimed that everyone knew how the Procuraduría worked.
Several members of the national bishops' association have called on President Fox to halt the investigation. They said that some of the people in his government wanted to discredit the church. Fox himself is a pious Catholic, and, the bishops stressed, not involved in the investigation.
The cardinal archbishop completely denied that either he or any of his family had been involved in money laundering. He said that he was not bothered by the investigation. A spokesman for the diocese said that the investigation was another distraction from the Posadas Ocampo case.
Carpizo criticised the leaks. They allowed the cardinal to claim that there was a conspiracy against him and, Carpizo argued, undermined the investigation. The leaks asked for information, apparently about transactions carried out by two of Sandoval's key supporters, the gambling czar José María Guardia and a lawyer, José Antonio Ortega. Others involved in the investigation include the 11 brothers of the cardinal and the federal deputy Fernando Guzmán Pérez-Pelaez.
Carpizo and the cardinal have been wrangling with each other for 10 years. The cardinal accused Carpizo, who was attorney-general when Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo, Sandoval's predecessor as cardinal, was shot dead at Guadalajara airport in 1993. Carpizo ruled that he had been caught up in crossfire between two drug gangs: the Arellano Felix brothers' Cartel de Tijuana and the Joaquín `El Chapo' Guzmán's Cartel de Sinaloa.
The church rejects this view. It claims that Posadas Ocampo was not killed accidentally, as the government claims, but deliberately, because he had evidence linking the then-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari to the drug trade. The church claims that Carpizo as attorney-general effectively supervised the killing of Posadas Ocampo.
What is undeniable is that the murder of Posadas Ocampo has some odd facets. The most obvious is why the Arellano Félix brothers were allowed to visit the papal nuncio in Mexico City without being arrested. The head of the other gang, Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, embarrassed the authorities in Jalisco, whose capital is Guadalajara, by escaping from a high security jail in the state in 2001.
What gives the spat an edge is that Sandoval and his family are on the far-right of the Mexican political spectrum. The spat has also opened up fissures in the Partido Acción Nacional, traditionally a clericalist party. The new environment minister, Alberto Cárdenas Jiménez, who was governor of the state of Jalisco, said that he was saddened by the injustice being done to the cardinal. He said that he knew the cardinal to be of the utmost probity.
On the other side of divide in the PAN are the pragmatists, notably Diego Fernández de Cevallos and Antonio Lozano Garcia. Fernández de Cevallos was a the PAN's candidate for the presidency in 1994. Lozano was President Zedillo's token panista in his cabinet. Lozano made a spectacular mess of investigating whether President Salinas' brother, Raúl, had bumped off his (former) brother-in-law Francisco Ruiz Massieu. Ruiz Massieu would probably have been Zedillo's first interior minister. Lozano paid witches for (worthless) evidence about where his officials should look for evidence to incriminate Raúl Salinas.
Carpizo himself is a one man Mexican establishment. He has served as interior minister, on the supreme court and as well as being attorney-general. He has also been ambassador to France. Carpizo represents the strong strain of anti-clericalism in Mexico. He commented, when Sandoval wanted the PGR to clear him before it investigated him, that the cardinal wanted the absolutism of the 19th century stretched into the 21st century. Carpizo added that it was odd that Sandoval was making such a fuss, because everyone is presumed innocent.
The current Procurador General de la República himself, General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, denied claims by the cardinal's supporters that the investigation was planting evidence against him. The General claimed that during his time in office there had been no planting of evidence against anyone. The cardinal refused to back down and claimed that everyone knew how the Procuraduría worked.
Several members of the national bishops' association have called on President Fox to halt the investigation. They said that some of the people in his government wanted to discredit the church. Fox himself is a pious Catholic, and, the bishops stressed, not involved in the investigation.
The cardinal archbishop completely denied that either he or any of his family had been involved in money laundering. He said that he was not bothered by the investigation. A spokesman for the diocese said that the investigation was another distraction from the Posadas Ocampo case.