Mexico’s former anti-narcotics chief on trial in U.S., accused of protecting cartels

Geoff Bennett:

Today in New York, arguments started in the case of the highest-ranking Mexican official to ever stand trial in the U.S.

Prosecutors say the very man responsible for working with the U.S. to enforce the war on drugs protected the cartels he was supposed to prosecute.

Nick Schifrin reports.

Nick Schifrin:

In 2006, then-Mexican President Felipe Calderon tasked Genaro Garcia Luna to remake Mexican law enforcement and go to war against Mexico's cartels.

As the head of Mexico's Security Ministry and before that Mexico's version of the FBI, Garcia Luna was one of the U.S.' most important partners. That's him with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But now U.S. prosecutors accuse him of taking millions of dollars in bribes and enabling the powerful Sinaloa cartel to traffic some 50 tons of cocaine into the U.S. and avoid prosecution.

He has pleaded not guilty. And, today, his lawyer said: "There is no money, no photos, no video, no texts, no e-mails, no recordings, no documents, no credible, believable evidence that Genaro Garcia Luna helped the cartel."

To discuss the trial and what it means in the U.S.-Mexico relationship, I'm joined by León Krauze, journalist and author who is currently Univision's national news anchor in Miami.

León Krauze, a pleasure to have you on the "NewsHour."

How does this happen, that someone so senior inside the Mexican state is the very person that the Sinaloa cartel manages to flip?

León Krauze, Univision:

That's a great question, Nick.

Great to be with you.

First, I think we have to imagine who Garcia Luna was. Imagine the head of DHS, Homeland Security, and the head of the FBI in one person. That was Genaro Garcia Luna. For six years, he led the war on drugs. He reengineered Mexican — Mexican police. He was an all-too-powerful figure who controlled himself information, sometimes monopolized the information, was quite feared, very, very powerful individual, respected as well on both sides of the border.

That this man betrayed those he swore to protect is quite a tragedy.

Nick Schifrin:

And so, in that sense, why is this trial about a lot more than drugs?

León Krauze:

Well, that's a big question.

I think that Mexico has suffered through a long drug war that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives to this point. And it has been very painful for the country. So, if the man who was in charge of the whole operation, of conceiving the whole operation is proving to — proven to be so corrupt, what can we say about the war on drugs?

I think that, ideally, this should begin a debate in Mexico and the United States as to how best to fight this conflict. And that includes, frankly, the United States and its incredible appetite for drugs and its also incredible capacity to feed warlike weapons to those cartels.

Nick Schifrin:

ProPublica has reported that U.S. investigators have had evidence showing his working with the cartels back in 2012, when he was still the minister of security. But prosecutors only brought charges after some of these became public in the case of El Chapo, the former head of the Sinaloa cartel, in 2019.

Do you believe this is a case of the U.S. not wanting to realize or not wanting to admit that one of their major allies was corrupt?

León Krauze:

That might be that — that might be the case.

He allegedly having some sort of deal with the Sinaloa cartel in which he got like half the amount market value worth of the cocaine that was taken from rival cartels, it's just — it's just beyond dramatic. It's really, really tragic. And it paints a horrible picture of what that was like back in the day, but also brings into question where we are now, frankly.

Nick Schifrin:

What do we know about the man himself?

I have read other journalists talk about him, that he considered himself a kind of James Bond.

León Krauze:

Yes, he was — I love — because you can't make this up.

I mean, he was obsessed with James Bond, obsessed with recognition of his — of his work. He saw himself as some sort of hero. He exercised very strict control, monopolized information. Julian Andrade, the journalist who knew Garcia Luna very well, told me that he liked to keep strict control of all information.

But, of course, the problem was that there was only one person who knew everything, how everything worked, and that person was Garcia Luna.

Nick Schifrin:

And, finally, go back to a point that you were making before, that this trial could lead to a debate, lead to a kind of confrontation in the United States, but certainly in Mexico, about the war on drugs that's killed 300,000 since 2006.

Why do you think the trial can get Mexico to confront that legacy and some of the rotten core of the security services?

León Krauze:

Well, I think that Mexico faces a very complicated scenario, Nick, frankly.

I mean, when you think what — you see the power of corruption that the cartels have. You also see the caliber of the weapons they use. You saw it in Sinaloa recently with the reaction to the capture of Ovidio Guzman, Joaquin Guzman's son. They have really warlike weapons that come from the United States.

And then you have the ascent of fentanyl as the drug of choice now for the cartels and the way that drug is affecting the United States. I think the combination of the three and the unending violence in Mexico really, really a big part of the country that is now under the monopoly of criminal organizations really should force — should force not only authorities in Mexico, but elsewhere in the whole region — the president of Colombia is now opening that dialogue as well — to consider what this war is like.

What's the endgame to this war with all those elements on the table? And I think that this trial will play a role, or at least should play a role in that debate.

Nick Schifrin:

León Krauze, thank you very much.

León Krauze:

Thank you Nick.