Bartlett Met With Caro Quintero And Received Bribes From The Guadalajara Cartel

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Jorge Godoy, bodyguard in the 80s and 90s for "Don Neto" serves as a protected witness of the DEA, assured that in a Guadalajara hotel they met Felix Gallardo, Caro Quintero, Manuel Bartllet, and high military commanders to see the torture and death of the agent of the DEA Enrique Kike Camarena.

In 1984, Manuel Bartlett, then Secretary of the Interior, attended a meeting with criminals such as Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca, in rooms at the American Motors hotel, on the corner of López Mateos and Mariano Otero avenues, in Guadalajara. This, according to the testimony of two witnesses before United States authorities, who have appeared in public documents, as part of the Caro Quintero file.

The issue, known for years, is current again due to the capture of Caro Quintero and the expectation that there will be unpublished information. This Monday, President López Obrador was questioned about it in the morning conference and replied that we must wait and not advance the day before on the matter.

The testimony of Jorge Godoy, as part of the legal proceedings against Caro Quintero and other criminals, in the United States is quite detailed about a meeting that allegedly was attended by crime leaders, federal authorities and the Army.

Godoy acknowledges that he was a criminal who worked for Ernesto Fonseca, 'Don Neto', leader of the Guadalajara Cartel. This man became a DEA protected witness, appeared in court and was questioned by prosecutors and defense attorneys of people prosecuted for the kidnapping and murder of Enrique Camarena, a DEA agent murdered in Mexico.

In an interrogation on December 8, 1992, in a court in Los Angeles, California, he spoke in depth about what he could contribute to clarifying this crime, but he also testified about the 1984 meeting between criminals, the military, and high-ranking civil authorities, such as Manuel Bartlett, Secretary of the Interior, and the Governor of Jalisco, Enrique Álvarez del Castillo.

The Reunion: according to the witness

Jorge Godoy attended the meeting as part of Ernesto Fonseca's security detail; According to his testimony, the meeting took place in September or October 1984; In the group of criminals were people like Samuel Ramírez, Javier Barba; Eliseo Vasquez; Antonio Vasquez; among others.

Outside the hotel they met Jorge Gama, an Army lieutenant.

Félix Gallardo later arrived and the group entered hotel rooms that were prepared for the meeting.

The witness says that Rafael Caro Quintero arrived later, accompanied by Paco Tejeda, Juan José Contreras, Miguel Juárez and Manuel Salcido, known as "El Cochiloco."

He also identified a group of soldiers who attended the meeting: General Juan Arévalo Gardoqui (Secretary of Defense); Santoyo Feria (Chief of the National Defense Staff), the aforementioned Jorge Gama and others that he does not mention by name.

Another character at the meeting was Miguel Aldana, then head of Interpol.

The last group to arrive at the meeting was made up of high-level public officials: Enrique Álvarez del Castillo, Governor of Jalisco, Manuel Bartlett, Secretary of the Interior, and Sergio Espino Verdin, DFS agent (directly involved in the torture of Kiki Camarena).

It should be mentioned that during the interrogation the witness was presented with photos to identify people that he himself mentioned. One of these photos was that of Manuel Bartlett.

The topic of the conversation was the DEA and Camarena's work:

The drug traffickers began to argue and ask Miguel Aldana (Ernesto Fonseca-Carrillo and Rafael Caro) what was happening with the DEA agent (Kiki Camarena), why they were losing so many marijuana fields, and why they were not respecting all that money that they were receiving.

They told Aldana: “Have you talked to the person from the DEA yet?”

And Aldana replied that he had gone to talk to him, but that he did not want to accept the deal. He didn't want any dealings with drug dealers.

And then Rubén Zuno-Arce said that if the DEA agent didn't want to take money or didn't want any deals then it was time to leave him… That meant to kidnap and kill him.

The witness said that Bartlett asked for a settlement to avoid political damage:

Mr. Manuel Bartlett-Diaz told the drug traffickers that a solution had to be found, found very soon, because he was going to be affected politically...

… He said that the solution would have to be quick because if the case came to light it would be discovered that he was signing the credentials of the Interior (DFS) carried by the drug traffickers. And that if this came to light, it would affect his candidacy for the government of Mexico.

La Palabra del Caribe