By David Zapp
“I have already sought out the advice of Gen. Oscar Naranjo, who recently retired as Colombia’s national police chief and is one of the world’s top crime fighters” said Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico’s president-elect.
Well if the president did that and wants to follow Naranjo’s advice then he knows that to win he has to let the Americans in and this he will not do. As a dear Mexican friend said to me, “our version of the Alamo is quite different from yours, Dr.” It nevertheless should give U.S. law enforcement pause that Pena does not mean what he says.
In Colombia, American law enforcement presence is present to a degree unthinkable in Mexico. DEA in effect has moved in. I found this out when I represented a defendant extradited from Colombia who had filed a motion in federal court to suppress statements that he had made to DEA agents in Colombia. From a DEA intelligence analyst who testified at the hearing we learned that the DEA worked hand in glove with the Colombian National Police, (CNP,) often calling the shots. DEA supplied the technology and even picked up the tab for CNP’s use of hotel rooms and rental cars during operations conducted on DEA’s behalf.
When Colombian agents arrested defendants, “for extradition purposes only,” American agents were standing by just in case some of those defendants wanted to talk to them. The American agents never did the actual arresting but they might as well have. Mexico is not going to allow this. Once was enough. They call it Texas.