Mexico’s former defense minister, Salvador Cienfuegos, was arrested on Thursday in Los Angeles and will arrive soon in New York to face conspiracy, organized crime and money laundering charges at the same courthouse which has already convicted Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman and where former Mexican police chief Genaro Garcia Luna also stands trial.
The symbolism is powerful. The DEA, the U.S. Department of Justice and the American judiciary apparently have embarked on a fearless crusade against the most vicious international drug traffickers and their powerful accomplices in the Mexican government. “It made me very proud to be an American,” announced Judge Brian Cogan after the conviction of Guzman to life in prison.
But the real story is much more complex, and reflects much more murkily on the U.S. government. Both Garcia Luna and Cienfuegos worked closely with American law enforcement agencies while Washington coddled the Mexican presidents under which they served: Felipe Calderon (2006-2012) and Enrique Pena Nieto (2012-2018). If these top Mexican officials are as corrupt as they appear to be, then their U.S. counterparts should also be investigated for complicity with their crimes.
Cienfuegos supposedly has been under investigation for over a decade, but in June 2017, the five-star general held a high profile meeting with then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo and then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in which they even supervised together the destruction of a poppy field. In 2018, Cienfuegos received the prestigious William J. Perry Award for Excellence in Security and Defense Education from the United States Department of Defense.
During the Obama administration, Washington worked closely with Garcia Luna on numerous missions, including the scandalous Operation Fast and Furious, which between 2009 and 2011 involved the illegal purchase and exportation to Mexico of almost 2,000 firearms worth $1.5 million. The former FBI chief in Mexico City during the Calderon administration, Raul Roldan, was until recently a member of the board of Garcia Luna’s private security company, GLAC Consulting.
In 2008, Obama and Calderon signed the Merida Initiative, establishing close collaboration between the two governments. The initiative “open(ed) a chapter of historic cooperation and acknowledge(ed) the shared responsibilities of the United States and Mexico to counter drug-fueled violence threatening citizens on both sides of the border,” according to official documents. It provided a framework for intensive information sharing and for billions of dollars of funding for the purchase of military equipment and supposedly “strengthening public institutions” south of the border.