- Montezuma's Revenge - Page 141

prosecutors suggested calling former president Carlos Salinas in for questioning, he immediately left town. He has since settled in Ireland and has threatened to sue anyone who suggests he or his family had anything to do with the drug trade.^[24]

 

With the nation’s law enforcement institutions collapsing around him, President Zedillo finally turned in desperation to the army. By now it was clear that the Federal Judicial Police were so riddled with corruption it was hard to tell who they were working for. When Zedillo’s new police chief took over the force at the end of 1994, he discovered that most of his men never even bothered to pick up their paychecks because their salary was such a pittance compared to their real income. But just as the new man was about to clean house, he was poisoned in his sleep—left alive, totally paralyzed.^[25]  Zedillo, surrounded by treachery, decided to put his faith in military discipline. In December of 1996, he named Army General Jose de Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo as Mexico’s drug czar, a move that was met with resounding applause in Washington. The U.S. had been pressuring Zedillo for some time to get the army involved because that was about the only institution left with a shred of integrity. Gutierrez—a tough minded drug warrior who had personally led the raid on Guero Palma of the Sinaloa cartel—was clearly the man for the job. And since President Clinton’s new drug czar was also a three-star general, the two men hit it off immediately.  After meeting Gutierrez in Mexico City, General Barry McCaffrey said, “He has a reputation of impeccable integrity... He’s a deadly serious guy.”  McCaffrey predicted a new era in U.S.-Mexican cooperation and promised better sharing of intelligence and 50 new helicopters.^[26]

Eleven weeks later the Mexican government announced that General Gutierrez was in a maximum security prison, charged with taking bribes and protecting the nation’s number one drug lord.^[27] It seems the General had indeed been tough on