Pubdate: Sun, 25 Aug 2002
Source: Arizona Republic (AZ)
Copyright: 2002 The Arizona Republic
Contact:  http://www.arizonarepublic.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: Tessie Borden, Republic Mexico City Bureau
Bookmarks: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Arellano-Felix
http://www.mapinc.org/area/Mexico

TIJUANA PUBLISHER USES HIS PEN AS SWORD AGAINST DRUG CARTEL

TIJUANA, Mexico - The headquarters from which Jesus Blancornelas wages
war on the Arellano-Felix drug cartel is intentionally understated: an
average-looking house in a middle-class barrio with a small sign near
the gate announcing Zeta Magazine.

It's the three or four "guaruras," or bodyguards, hanging around just
outside, with their mirrored shades and alert postures, that give one
pause. They have good reason to be there.

For 17 years, Blancornelas has fought with words the men who use guns
to forge a path for much of the marijuana and cocaine that reaches the
United States through the California-Mexico border. His target and
self-admitted obsession is the powerful Arellano-Felix drug cartel,
based in Tijuana and currently considered the largest and best-
organized drug organization in Mexico.

This week, the magazine carries a story about the girlfriend of an
Arellano-Felix associate who was an important clue in the March
capture of Benjamin Arellano-Felix, chief of the cartel. (Arellano-
Felix's brother, Ramon, who ran the cartel with him, was killed in a
shootout with police a month earlier in Mazatlan).

Five years ago, drug dealers' bullets almost silenced
Blancornelas.

As he and chauffeur Luis Valero drove down a narrow street, a green
SUV blocked their path and a gunman opened fire from the passenger's
seat. The bullets hit Blancornelas in the neck, abdomen and near his
spine. Valero swerved and tried to cover Blancornelas with his body
while the newsman called for help on his CB radio. Minutes later,
rescuers rushed him to a hospital. He survived, but Valero was killed.

A notorious drug runner for the Arellano-Felixes also died in the
crossfire.

Blancornelas described his assailant to police. Evidence later showed
10 gunmen ambushed the car. No one has ever been arrested.

"There is no police officer in Mexico capable of arresting the killers
of my friend Luis," Blancornelas wrote in his 2001 book, Private
Conversations, which is also the title of his weekly Zeta column. "The
Arellano-Felix cartel has proved more powerful."

The attacks came weeks after Blancornelas published an open letter
from Maria Castanos, whose two sons had been killed by the cartel. In
it, she challenged Ramon to "kill me, if you're such a man, come kill
me."

The report was said to have angered Ramon, but the magazine did not
let up. Reports on the arrest of Everardo "Kitty" Paez, with names and
dates confessed, followed, along with a piece on the murder of two
military men reportedly ordered by David "El C.H." Corona Barron, the
man who was killed in the attempt on Blancornelas' life.

After several operations and weeks in intensive care, Blancornelas
returned to work, holding news meetings from his hospital bed.

It was the third time the subjects of his stinging articles had gone
after him. In 1987, Zeta's office was sprayed with gunfire. In 1988,
his colleague and Zeta co-founder, Hector Felix Miranda, was killed by
men working for Jorge Frank Rhon, a member of one of Mexico's most
powerful families. The motive remains a mystery, even though two
assailants were convicted.

Blancornelas' reportage has attracted nervous and hostile attention
since he arrived in Tijuana in 1960 from his native San Luis Potosi.
Before turning his raging pen to the Arellano-Felixes, he wrote about
official corruption for El Mexicano, a local paper, and for ABC, a
newspaper he founded. Police frequently harassed the
publications.

Now, Blancornelas lives a regimented life oscillating between Zeta and
his home, guarded by 10 to 13 men. Any excursion outside those
locations - say, to a restaurant or a movie theater - requires
extensive planning and stakeouts to identify safe exits and
observation points.

Despite all this, Blancornelas, polite and elegant in person, refuses
to shut up.

"The Arellano-Felix cartel is the one that has lasted longest in Latin
America," he said in an interview at his Zeta office. "They have been
around since 1982."

His work has earned Blancornelas international recognition. In June,
the Inter-American Press Association gave him its top award, the grand
prize for Press Freedom, calling him a reporter "who has dedicated his
career and, indeed, his well-being to the pursuit of a free press that
is vigilant, untainted by corruption and committed to defending the
Mexican people."

Now, Blancornelas has published a book about his single-minded focus.
The Cartel, a history of the Arellano-Felixes, was published in Mexico
City in July. He has no illusions that Benjamin's arrest and Ramon's
death have dismantled the cartel.

"The cartel is not one person," he said. "It's a family."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake