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Mexico’s ex-defense minister detained in US on DEA orders
Mexico’s former defense minister, General Salvador Cienfuegos, was detained by U.S. authorities on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s orders, the country’s most senior military official involved in an investigation by the narcotics-fighting agency.
Mexico’s former defense minister, General Salvador Cienfuegos, was detained by U.S. authorities on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s orders, the country’s most senior military official involved in an investigation by the narcotics-fighting agency.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said in a tweet Thursday night he expects to be informed of the charges against Cienfuegos in the coming hours, having been told of the detention by US Ambassador to Mexico Christopher Landau. Cienfuegos was held after arriving at an L.A. airport on orders of the DEA, according to the Foreign Ministry’s North America director Robert Velasco.
Cienfuegos, 72, was the top military official during the six years of former President Enrique Pena Nieto’s administration, whose 2012 to 2018 government has come under intense scrutiny from current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
The president delights in railing against corruption under past administrations. Yet graft in the military could prove delicate territory for Lopez Obrador, who has drastically expanded the army’s role in Mexican life, from protecting oil facilities and ports to undertaking public works including airports and even government bank branches.
Read More: Mexico Minister Resigns in Protest Over Militarization of Ports
Mike Vigil, a former head of DEA international operations, said he was informed by current officials that the charges against Cienfuegos include drug trafficking and money laundering related to a case in New York. Bloomberg News hasn’t been able to confirm the information, and a former press official for Cienfuegos didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Given the army’s current prominence in Mexico, the arrest will have disastrous consequences,” Vigil said in an interview. “Mexico has always held the army on a pedestal as being incorruptible.”
Before stepping down in 2018, Cienfuegos had publicly praised Lopez Obrador’s pick to replace him, current Defense Minister Luis Crescencio Sandoval, who has become a close ally of the president.
Cienfuegos is now the second major Mexican ex-security official being held by U.S. law enforcement. Former federal police chief Genaro Garcia Luna is on trial in New York for allegedly taking millions of dollars in bribes to protect convicted kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s Sinaloa drug cartel.
