MEXICO: Church Caught Up in Real-Life Narco-Drama

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Sep 25 2003 (IPS) - Purported ties between the Roman Catholic Church and drug traffickers in Mexico have gone from the terrain of speculation in literature, film and academic studies to a police investigation of a 70-year-old cardinal who has been mentioned as a papal candidate.

Cardinal Juan Sandoval, archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-biggest city, is under investigation by the attorney-general’s office on charges of money laundering.

An attorney-general’s office’s document stated that Sandoval’s contacts with drug traffickers have not been chance meetings, as the cardinal claims, but ”the consequence of a specific project.”

The cities where the cardinal has been posted ”have become, over time, the hubs of the most powerful drug cartels, and the power of the cartels has increased during his stays there,” the document adds.

That allegation gave rise to tension in the relations between the Church and the government, prompting President Vicente Fox himself to step in, in an attempt to calm things down – which in turn drew criticism from experts in law and spokespersons from other churches.

The president received Sandoval at his ranch on Sep. 21. According to the cardinal, who was flown in by a helicopter belonging to the president’s office, Fox told him that the probe would be wrapped up by early October, and that there was no intention to persecute him.

But a communique issued by the president’s office denied that Fox, who describes himself as ”profoundly Catholic,” had said any such thing in the meeting.

Although the statement said that in their conversation, Fox and Sandoval ”agreed that it is very important that the investigation…of the cardinal and other people strictly respect their rights…in no way is this a case of allowing impunity or an attempt to re-establish special legal privileges.”

In past centuries, Church officials enjoyed immunity from the law in Mexico.

The attorney-general’s office, meanwhile, clarified that the file on Sandoval was just one more aspect of its investigation, and that it had not reached any conclusion on the case.

The cardinal, a member of the Congregation of Consecrated Life, the Pontifical Council for Culture, and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, prides himself on his friendships with prominent business and political leaders in Mexico and other countries, including Cuban President Fidel Castro.

One of his best-known friends in Mexico is José María Guardia, a Philippines-born naturalised Mexican citizen who owns a racetrack and is a partner in several gambling operations. Guardia is famous for his generous donations to the Mexican Church.

In recent years, rumours of alleged ties to drug traffickers have swirled around both Sandoval and Guardia.

As assistant bishop from 1988 to 1994 in the border town of Ciudad Juárez, a city marked by violent crime and the activity of narcotrafficking bands, there was talk of Sandoval receiving large, shady, anonymous donations for the Church. The same thing happened in Guadalajara, where Sandoval is now archbishop.

Mexico is the gateway through which tons of illegal drugs flow into the United States, the world’s top market for drugs.

Expert in criminal law Diego Valdés said ”Fox committed a huge error by meeting with someone accused of money laundering, even if he is an archbishop.”

The chairman of the National Baptist Convention, Gilberto Gutiérrez, told IPS that by meeting with Sandoval, the president demonstrated his intention to maintain the privileges that the Catholic Church has traditionally enjoyed in Mexico.

”It was an incredible meeting, which he would never have granted to members of other churches facing similar charges,” said Gutiérrez.

Anthropologist Elio Masferrer maintained that Sandoval is sure that the fact that he forms part of the Catholic Church hierarchy will guarantee him immunity.

The cardinal claims the charges have been fabricated as part of a smear campaign against him. He called on the Catholic faithful to speak out publicly against the attorney-general office’s decision to investigate him, and sent a statement to the United Nations office in Mexico complaining that he was being persecuted.

Although the highest-level Church authorities in Mexico have not come out in defence of Sandoval, several bishops have said they would vouch for his innocence.

Never before in the history of Mexico have the police been known to investigate a Catholic priest for alleged ties to the drug trade, although the supposed existence of such links has frequently been the subject of books, films and academic studies.

One of the most recent films touching on the issue was ”The Crime of Father Amaro” by Mexican director Carlos Carrera, which premiered in 2002 amidst loud protests by the Church.

”Relations between priests and drug traffickers in Mexico have been mentioned by a number of historians and academics, but nothing like an investigation of an archbishop has ever been seen,” said Alfonso Zárate, director of the non-governmental ”interdisciplinary consultancy group”.

Sandoval, one of the most vehement critics of Carrera’s film, is one of the Mexican archbishops with the closest ties to the Vatican, and has even been mentioned as a possible successor to Pope John Paul II.

His predecessor as archbishop of Guadalajara, Juan Jesús Posadas, was shot and killed in the local airport there in 1993.

The investigation into that incident by the attorney-general’s office concluded that drug traffickers involved in a gun battle mistook Posadas for a rival as he stepped out of his car at the Guadalajara airport.

But Sandoval and others maintain that Posadas’ murder was a ”state crime” and that he was killed because he had information about ties to drug trafficking at the highest levels of government.