MEXICO'S FORMER DRUG CZAR TIED TO KIDNAPPINGS : 51 REPORTED MISSING IN MEXICO.Byline: Julia Preston The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times The owner of a department store in the provincial capital Noun 1. provincial capital - the capital city of a province capital - a seat of government city, metropolis, urban center - a large and densely populated urban area; may include several independent administrative districts; "Ancient Troy was a great city" of Culiacan was driving to work one morning in September when three unmarked sedans without license plates surrounded his gray Oldsmobile. As bystanders watched in terror, four men brandishing assault rifles A
Rico has not been seen since Sept. 25. But a notebook dropped in his car by one of the kidnappers, as well as evidence gathered by military investigators, links the abduction Abduction Balfour, David expecting inheritance, kidnapped by uncle. [Br. Lit.: Kidnapped] Bertram, Henry kidnapped at age five; taken from Scotland. [Br. Lit. to Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, the former head of Mexico's anti-drug agency who was arrested last month on charges of collaborating with one of the country's most powerful cocaine barons. Rico is one of at least 51 Mexicans who have disappeared in the last three years in kidnappings with signs of involvement by government security forces, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. lists compiled by relatives, human-rights organizations and the press. Now evidence is emerging to tie many of these abductions to the war against powerful drug traffickers, which has increasingly been under the command of Mexico's military. ``We are everyday citizens under attack, caught in the cross-fire between narcos, authorities and narco-authorities,'' said Lucia Solis de Jurado, whose husband, a trader in semiprecious stones, was seized in October last year from the front step of his home in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. ``It has gotten to the point where it can happen to anyone.'' Relatives and human-rights leaders contend that most of the victims have no proven ties to drug traffickers or other criminal activities, although some have had brushes with the authorities. ``They tend to be businessmen, students and other citizens who were going about their lives,'' said Oscar Loza of the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights in the state of Sinaloa, where at least nine people have disappeared. Mexico's military has traditionally played a supporting role supporting role n → second rôle m supporting role n → ruolo non protagonista in the fight against drug trafficking, mainly eradicating narcotics narcotics n. 1) techinically, drugs which dull the senses. 2) a popular generic term for drugs which cannot be legally possessed, sold, or transported except for medicinal uses for which a physician or dentist's prescription is required. crops. Soon after he took office in 1994, President Ernesto Zedillo, facing widespread corruption in the state and federal police, began to place military officers and troops in key positions in the battle against the drug cartels. Gutierrez was named Mexico's chief anti-drug official in December 1996, and army officers were given command of state and municipal police forces in Sinaloa. Large quantities of drugs have long flowed through Sinaloa. Just last week, the army took over narcotics operations in the border state of Baja California Baja California, state, Mexico Baja California (Span.: bä`hä kälēfōr`nyä), state (1990 pop. 1,660,855), 27,628 sq mi (71,576 sq km), NW Mexico, on the Baja California peninsula. Mexicali is the capital. . Since the arrest of Gutierrez, families of missing Mexicans have come forward after enduring their anguish in silence for months and even years. The number of known victims is growing. There is evidence that, in addition to Rico, five men who disappeared since last September in northern Mexico were abducted abducted Distal angulation of an extremity away from the midline of the body in a transverse plane and away from a sagittal plane passing through the proximal aspect of the foot or part, or away from some other specified reference point in operations commanded by Gutierrez and carried out by his deputies during his two-month tenure as head of the national drug agency or before that, when he was the senior commander of the Fifth Military Region in central Mexico. The abductions in which Gutierrez appears to have had a role are only a fraction of those reported. The general's lawyers did not respond to requests for comment. The disclosures about the kidnappings raise new questions about Gutierrez's ascent to the highest position in Mexico's war on drugs and about Zedillo's moves to expand the role of the armed forces in the anti-narcotics campaign. Several months before Defense Minister Enrique Cervantes Aguirre recommended Gutierrez to the president for the top anti-drug job, the Mexican military had substantial evidence implicating im·pli·cate tr.v. im·pli·cat·ed, im·pli·cat·ing, im·pli·cates 1. To involve or connect intimately or incriminatingly: evidence that implicates others in the plot. 2. the general's two closest aides in the kidnapping kidnapping, in law, the taking away of a person by force, threat, or deceit, with intent to cause him to be detained against his will. Kidnapping may be done for ransom or for political or other purposes. of Rico. Both aides were arrested with their commander on drug charges on Feb. 18. The kidnapping allegations apparently never reached the highest levels. Cervantes acknowledged that neither he nor Zedillo had any doubts about Gutierrez until about two weeks before his arrest. |
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