‘DRUG LORD GAVE MEXICO PRESIDENT $100M BRIBE’
▶ Former leader has denied taking cash from ‘El Chapo,’ court told
The former president of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, took a $100 million bribe from Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, according to a witness at the alleged drug lord’s trial.
In testimony, Alex Cifuentes, Guzman’s former secretary and aide, had already revealed how Guzman was able to benefit from his enormous wealth during his years on the run. He was hiding in the Mexican mountains, surrounded by TV screens at his seven or more homes as he worked on a project to turn his life story into a film.
He admitted the alleged bribe under cross-examination. Jeffrey Lichtman, one of Guzman’s lawyers, asked: “Mr Guzman paid a bribe of $100m to President Pena Nieto?” “Yes,” Cifuentes replied. Mr Pena Nieto previously denied taking bribes and his former chief of staff, Francisco Guzman, took to social media to refute the latest claim.
“The declarations of the Colombian drug trafficker in New York are false, defamatory and absurd,” Mr Guzman, who is unrelated to the defendant, wrote on Twitter. He said the Pena Nieto government was responsible for detaining and extraditing the man accused of running the Sinaloa cartel.
The allegation is one of the most explosive to emerge from two months of testimony that has offered a rare glimpse inside Mexico’s drug industry.
Guzman, 61, was extradited to the US in 2017 to face 17 charges of trafficking cocaine, heroin and other drugs into the country. He denies the charges and his lawyers argue that he is being set up as a fall guy for more powerful figures.
He may yet take the stand in his own defence. Mr Lichtman on Tuesday asked the court to list his client as a potential witness – a move that allows the prosecution to prepare for his appearance but does not necessarily mean that he will do so.
Much of the prosecution case relies on former Guzman allies who have offered to give evidence for reduced sentences.
Last week, however, the jury heard from the cartel’s IT chief, who described helping federal investigators gain access to encrypted servers and hundreds of telephonic and electronic communications.
This week, Cifuentes testified about the two years he spent with Guzman as they eluded the army in the Sinaloa mountains.
He said Mr Pena Nieto ap- proached Guzman while he was president-elect in October 2012, offering to call off a nationwide manhunt in return for about $250m. They eventually agreed on $100m, he said.
Cifuentes also testified that Guzman once told him that he had received a message from Mr Pena Nieto saying that he did not have to live in hiding any more.
Details of the alleged bribe first emerged in court in November during the defence’s opening statement, which claimed Guzman was being framed by corrupt investigators and Mexican politicians.
At the time, the former president’s spokesman insisted the allegations were false.
Mr Pena Nieto was once a rising star of Mexican politics, coming to power at the head of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. But by the time he left office last year he was dogged by a weak economy, rising crime and a string of scandals, including corruption allegations.
During his evidence, Cifuentes also offered details of other bribes offered to lower-level politicians and the police.
On one occasion, he said, traffickers passed to police photographs of suitcases stuffed with cocaine flying in from Argentina so they could collect them from the baggage carousel and sell the drugs themselves.
Earlier in his testimony, Cifuentes, who described himself as Guzman’s “right-hand man, his left-hand man”, offered more details of life on the run.
He described a daily routine that involved Guzman rising at noon before taking the day’s messages from his secretary. After lunch – often enchiladas – he would stroll among the mountain trees using a cordless phone to make his calls.
He said he lived with Guzman at a number of mountain boltholes. They had “everything we needed”, he said, including satellite TV, a plasma screen and maids to look after them.
At one point, Guzman began work on a book about his life, said Cifuentes, with the aim of turning it into a film that he would direct.
“The idea came from my first wife Angie ... because he was always in the news, in the newspapers,” he said. “He should do a movie about his life so he could make money instead of the papers. He loved the idea.”
But there were near misses On one occasion, with the military closing in on their camp, Guzman ordered his men to grab their weapons and flee.
“We were running practically all night,” said Cifuentes, before lorries picked them up and took them to another hideout.