Pubdate: Wed, 15 Dec 2010
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: A1, Front Page
Copyright: 2010 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Randal C. Archibold
Note: Antonio Betancourt contributed reporting.

POLITICS ENABLES MEXICAN FUGITIVE TO DEFANG A LAW

MEXICO CITY - Despite being a federal fugitive, accused of laundering 
millions of dollars for one of Mexico's most ruthless drug cartels, 
Julio Cesar Godoy says he simply walked into the national legislature 
here unnoticed in September, right past the cordon of federal police 
officers watching the building.

He then raised his right arm, swore allegiance to the Mexican 
Constitution and, 15 months after disappearing from public view, 
finally claimed the congressional seat he won last year.

It was too late for prosecutors to do much about it. Mr. Godoy's 
newly conferred status came with a special perk: immunity from prosecution.

Now, a political saga that underscores the persistent fears of 
political infiltration by drug cartels and the many frustrations of 
rooting it out continues to swirl around him.

Mexico's attorney general has been incensed at Mr. Godoy's ability to 
hide in plain sight, while others debate intriguing details in local 
news reports, like accounts that Mr. Godoy had actually been spirited 
into the building's basement garage in another lawmaker's car.

"It undermined the seriousness of the Chamber of Deputies and the 
rule of law that he could just show up and take the oath," said John 
J. Bailey, a Georgetown University professor who studies organized 
crime and democracy in Mexico. "The natural reaction was, 'What is 
going on here?'"

On Tuesday night, the chamber, Mexico's lower house of Congress, 
voted overwhelmingly to strip Mr. Godoy of his immunity and 
legislative duties, a development that could lead to his eventual 
arrest and trial - if he can be found.

Mr. Godoy has professed his innocence, calling the charges a 
political vendetta against him by President Felipe Calderon's 
governing party. But he was not at Tuesday's session. His lawyer 
attended the session in his place, leaving Mr. Godoy's own whereabouts unclear.

That mystery has only added to an affair that for lawmakers and 
analysts has stood out for its sheer brazenness and fed a political 
firestorm that has lasted months.

It is certainly not unusual for political and government figures here 
to be implicated in organized crime. Dozens of mayors suspected of 
ties to criminal networks have been arrested or killed in recent 
years, and even the country's former senior antidrug official was 
arrested and accused of taking bribes from a cartel.

Federal prosecutors contend that Mr. Godoy is an important associate 
of the top leaders of La Familia, a cultlike drug organization that 
is among the most violent in Mexico. A legislative panel on Monday 
said it found that Mr. Godoy had, among other things, not explained 
the origins of $2.2 million deposited in his bank accounts or calls 
from his cellphone to known leaders of the gang.

A memo from federal prosecutors to lawmakers said Mr. Godoy had been 
among a group of local mayors, police officers and other officials in 
the state of Michoacan serving as paid informers for the cartel. Mr. 
Godoy is the half brother of the state's governor, Leonel Godoy, who 
has said he was unaware of any illicit activity his brother may have 
engaged in.

In a twist to a case with many of them, Julio Cesar Godoy was 
supposedly caught on tape discussing cartel affairs with Servando 
Gomez, a top cartel leader known as La Tuta, who emerged last week in 
a drama of his own. It was discovered that Mr. Gomez had been 
collecting a salary for the past 15 years from the Education 
Ministry, from a previous job as a schoolteacher.

A former mayor, Mr. Godoy was elected to the legislature in 2009, but 
he disappeared from public only days later after federal charges were 
filed against him accusing him of ties to organized crime and money 
laundering. The federal government considered him a fugitive.

How Mr. Godoy eluded the police for so long remains a mystery.

When he surfaced, he no longer had a mustache, and news reports said 
his hair was noticeably grayer. Mr. Godoy said he was at his home the 
whole time.

But his supporters worked to get him into his legislative seat and 
attain the immunity that comes with it. Mexican law provides 
legislators freedom from prosecution as a check against political 
persecution by the executive branch.

Some experts have noted that the broader investigation in Michoacan 
initially swept up more than 30 mayors and other local officials, 
mostly members of Mr. Godoy's party, which Mr. Calderon narrowly beat 
in 2006 to win the presidency. Michoacan is Mr. Calderon's home 
state, and he has focused federal forces on it to break up organized crime.

But most of the people initially arrested have been released for lack 
of evidence or other problems with the case, said John M. Ackerman, 
editor of the Mexican Law Review. "Instead of collecting evidence 
they acted way too quickly, right around the 2009 elections," Mr. 
Ackerman said.

While Francisco Blake Mora, the interior secretary, has insisted that 
the evidence against Mr. Godoy is solid, a judge last summer issued a 
ruling that Mr. Godoy had the right to take his seat despite the 
pending charges - though the ruling said nothing about how he would 
get into the legislative building without being arrested first.

The government had posted police officers around the building to 
prevent him from doing just that.

Still, Mr. Godoy arrived at the legislative building in the heart of 
the capital on Sept. 23 - driven in by a leader of his leftist 
Democratic Revolutionary Party, according to the Mexico City 
newspaper El Universal - and was sworn in, to the shock and dismay of 
the authorities.

Afterward, he walked out free, saying later, "I am no little angel, 
but neither am I a criminal."

Since then, he has been swarmed by reporters, instead of police 
officers, at nearly all his public appearances.

One of the more intriguing tidbits came in October, when audio tapes 
were leaked to news organizations with a voice that sounded like Mr. 
Godoy's chatting with Mr. Gomez, the cartel leader from La Familia. 
Mr. Godoy said the voice was not his.

La Familia, which blends its own form of Christian teachings with 
methamphetamine trafficking and the beheadings of rivals, is now also 
the focus of an assault by federal forces aimed at dismantling it.

The spiritual leader of the group, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, was 
believed to have been killed last week in a confrontation with the 
federal police, the government said.
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