USA: MEXICO: DRUGS - EDUARDO VALLE INTERVIEW

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• published: 21 Jul 2015
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Spanish/Nat Mexican Presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio was assassinated by drug barons according to a former official from Mexico's Attorney General's office. Speaking exclusively to APTV from his self-imposed exile in Washington, Eduardo Valle, also claimed that Mexico's ruling party had close ties with drug traffickers. Eduardo Valle fled from a well-paid job in the office of Mexico's Attorney General to a dingy hideout in Washington. The former personal assistant to the attorney general says he cannot set foot in his own country - he knows too much about ties between government officials and drug-traffickers. SOUNDBITE: "The problem is that when you control the federal police, the local police, judges, journalists, bankers, banks, part of the military and so forth, you become a state within the state." SUPER CAPTION: Eduardo Valle, former personal assistant to the Attorney General Valle claims drug cartels ordered the killing of the ruling P-R-I party's official presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio in March 1994. He said Colosio had offended a drug kingpin just three weeks before his assassination. SOUNDBITE: "I found out that one of the guests to the dinner was the brother of reputed drug kingpin Humberto Garcia Abrego. So I warned Colosio, and Colosio immediately ordered that he be removed from the guest list. That was a war declaration. In this world, dealing with people like those guys, that was a war declaration." SUPER CAPTION: Eduardo Valle, former personal assistant to the Attorney General Unlike former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, President Ernesto Zedillo has recognized that Colosio's assassination was the result of a conspiracy rather than a lone gunman. Valle also criticizes the official investigation into the assassination last September of P-R-I reformer Francisco Ruiz Massieu. He says Carlos Salinas de Gortari and Mario Ruiz Massieu, the victim's brother in charge of investigating the crime, struck a deal to protect each other. According to Valle, when Mario found out the crime had been masterminded by Salinas's brother, Raul, he told the president. SOUNDBITE: "If I were President Salinas at that time, I would've called Mario Ruiz Massieu and told him: 'I know that you have 10-million dollars in drug bribes. So I'll shut up if you leave my brother Raul alone. I will leave your family alone and I will leave you alone.'" SUPER CAPTION: Eduardo Valle, former personal assistant to the Attorney General Mario Ruiz Massieu is in prison in the U-S awaiting trial on currency charges. The Mexican government has requested his extradition, accusing him of ties with drug traffickers and misappropriation of state funds. Valle claims there Raul Salinas de Gortari ordered the Ruiz Massieu assassination to protect his drug dealings. SOUNDBITE: "I informed President Salinas, to be precise on October 15, 1993, that Raul was deeply involved in the Gulf Cartel and the other cartels, not only in the one from the Gulf." SUPER CAPTION: Eduardo Valle, former personal assistant to the Attorney General Valle says that Zedillo lacks the political muscle to put Raul Salinas de Gortari in the dock. SOUNDBITE: "Zedillo will not charge Raul with drug trafficking because he would have to go to the core of the problem, and right now, president Zedillo does not have the reins of power in his hands to do that." SUPER CAPTION: Eduardo Valle, former personal assistant to the Attorney General Valle says he can support his allegations with thousands of copies of official Mexican documents which he smuggled into the U-S. But he is afraid that his stand has made him powerful and potentially deadly enemies. SOUNDBITE: You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/26851fd49898d861e456e7c78a135477 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork