An online video implicating a former Mexican state attorney general in political assassinations and corruption has created a new scandal of collusion between officials and Mexican drug cartels.
In a video posted to YouTube on Monday, a man identified as the brother of former Chihuahua state attorney general Patricia Gonzalez sits in a chair surrounded by masked men in camouflage. The former official’s brother was reportedly kidnapped last week. With rifles pointed at him, the brother says Gonzalez took bribes from the Juarez cartel, covered up crimes and ordered others, including the deaths of two local journalists.
Just last week, the Chihuahua state legislature passed a bill that includes a mandatory sentence of life in prison for those convicted of murdering journalists. The former state attorney general says she recognizes the backdrop in the video as a cubicle in a government office and suspects police are tied to her brother’s kidnapping and video interrogation.
The scandal comes in the wake of a particularly gruesome weekend along the border. Thirteen youths were massacred at a birthday party in Ciudad Juarez (in Chihuahua state) and another 13 recovering drug addicts were gunned down in a Tijuana rehab.
Nearly 30 thousand Mexicans have died in drug war related violence since President Felipe Calderon began his frontal military strategy against the country’s powerful cartels 4 years ago.
