Mexican General tries to bribe Defense Secretary

Proceso.

9-21-2012

Translated for Borderland Beat by un vato

MEXICO, D.F. (proceso.com.mx)-- Brigadier General Juan Manuel Barragan Espinosa asked the Sinaloa Cartel leaders for two gold watches and ten million dollars in exchange for arranging a private meeting with the highest levels of the Public Security cabinet.

The newspaper Reforma on this Friday revealed that Barragan, son in law of Division General Felix Galvan Lopez, Secretary of National Defense during the Jose Lopez Portillo administration, offered to serve as intermediary between the cartel and the current Secretary of National Defense, General Guillermo Galvan, Attorney General Marisela Morales and General Genaro Robles, deputy director of Operations of the  Estado Mayor de la Defensa (equivalent to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the U.S. military).  

According to investigations by the military and the PGR (Office of  Attorney General) to which the newspaper had access, the Army received an anonymous tip on November 3, 2011, which warned that Barragan was meeting with criminals in his offices in Lomas de Sotelo, and was living a life of luxury.

"According to the military and the PGR investigations, in December, "Chapo" Guzman sent his representatives Humberto and Oscar Murguia Guerrero directly to Barragan's office to request his help in arranging a meeting with Secretary Guillermo Galvan.

"The capo's people asked that the meeting with the Secretary take place away from his office because there were surely microphones in place there.

"The message that the Murguia brothers delivered from Guzman was very specific: they wanted to negotiate an agreement with the Army that involved ending military operations against the Sinaloa Cartel in the northwest part of the country, and in particular, to cease the pursuit of the organization's leader, according to investigation (file) No.PGR/SIEDO/UEITA/004/2012," states the newspaper.

The offer to Galvan was protection for the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for $140 million dollars.

UPDATE: General responds to accusations

Proceso. 9-23-2012

MEXICO, D.F. (proceso.com.mx) After it was revealed that Brigadier General Juan Manuel Barragan Espinosa asked Sinaloa Cartel leaders for two gold watches and $10 million dollars in exchange for arranging private meetings with the highest levels of the Public Security cabinet, the military officer declared that that never happened and, furthermore, he complained to the authorities in January.

The newspaper Reforma of Friday revealed that Barragan, son in law of Division Geneal Felix Galvan Lopez, Secretary of National Defense in the Jose Lopez Portillo administration, offered his services as intermediary between the Cartel and the current National Defense Secretary, Gen. Gillermo Galvan, Attorney General Marisela Morales and Gen. Genaro Robles, deputy director of operations of the Estado Mayor de la Defensa  (Army high command).

According to military and PGR investigations to which the journal had access, the Army received an anonymous tip on November 3, 2011, which warned that Barragan was meeting with criminals in his office and was living a life of luxury.

Barragan, imprisoned in the Altiplano federal penitentiary in the State of Mexico, admits that he received Joaquin El Chapo Guzman's emissaries in his Lomas de Sotelo office, but that he never accepted money and even turned them in to the Military Prosecution.   

When he was arrested last January 30, Barragan testified before the SIEDO (Attorney General's organized crime investigation unit) that the Sinaloa Cartel agents used deception to get into his office and that one of them used a false name.

He stated that in mid-January he filed a complaint against the drug traffickers with Justice Major Teresa Hernandez, so the Army was aware of the situation.

However, he filed the complaint only after the National Defense Secretariat (Sedena) had been investigating him for more than a month.

According to Reforma,  Barragan admitted that he dealt with lawyer Jaime Lemus Garcia in his office at the Army's General Personnel Directorate, but not about litigation involving drug traffickers, as (Lemus Garcia) has testified, but to discuss the purchase of debt bonds.

[Note: three paragraphs are omitted here because they repeat the factual narrative in  the original  article.-- un vato]

In the interrogation of Brig. Gen. Juan Manuel Baragan that took place in the SIEDO offices, he confirmed that he knew Humberto Guerrero Murguia, but not Aaron Lopez Rubio, both men supposedly sent by El Chapo. However, he denied taking any gift or money from Guerrero Murgia.