Mexican Official Manuel Bartlett Diaz Responds to FBI Files Regarding 'Kiki' Camarena Kidnapping

From Ioan Grillo's Articles on CrashOut

The Director of Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission, and former interior secretary responded to Crash Out's report on the declassified memorandum.

On Friday Sept. 27, 2024, Manuel Bartlett, Diaz released a letter in answer to a report on CrashOut from Wednesday, Sept. 25. I [Ioan Grillo] strongly believe in the right of reply and I am publishing here the full letter from Bartlett in English and Spanish, with a few further points from Crashout below.

The report Bartlett is responding to is, “Exclusive – U.S. Declassifies Document on Bartlett and Camarena Case,” by Juan Alberto Cedillo and Ieva Jusionyte, with additional reporting and writing by me, Ioan Grillo. You can read the full report here.

The report is based on a 1986 message from the U.S. embassy in Mexico City to the director of the FBI that was declassified on August 12 following freedom of information requests by Jusionyte and Cedillo. The story by CrashOut and the document have been cited widely in Mexican media, which Bartlett mentions in his reply.

The document was released after two Freedom of Information requests by the authors and has a declassification date stamp of August 12 this year. Spanning six pages and heavily redacted, the memo is an update from the “Legat,” which in FBI speak refers to an international office of the bureau and also the “legal attaché,” who heads that office. It references interviews with “confidential sources abroad” or CSA’s including what appears to be another Mexican official.

“Legat, Mexico City strongly suspects that [redacted] narcotics protection activities…reached perhaps to the Secretary of the Interior (Gobernación) Manuel Bartlett Díaz. While this is merely strong suspicions because of indications of widespread corruption and extortion activities of [redacted] it is not difficult to conclude logically that these activities ultimately benefit top leaders in the Mexican government.”

The message has a further reference to the Mexican politician, reporting that “the CSA speculated that Bartlett...,” but the rest of that sentence has been redacted. It adds that an informant’s “life would be in certain jeopardy” for talking to U.S. agents.

Here is Bartlett's original letter first, with the translation into English below.

English Translation

Mexico City, September 27, 2024

To the public opinion

On September 25, just three days before the change of Federal Administration, Ioan Grillo (journalist on drug trafficking, crime, etc.) published an article on his CrashOut website entitled: “U.S. Declassifies Document on Bartlett and Camarena Case”

The source of the article is a "declassified memorandum" (in the possession of the U.S. government for over 40 years, without any significance), which is made public at Grillo's request, but it lacks any informative content. Let's read it:

1. Begin the memo, "A Confidential Source Overseas [CSA] speculates that Bartlett... [crossed out, i.e. blank]."

2. "The Source's speculation was [checked, blank]."

3. "Legat, Mexico City [FBI office based in Mexico] has strong suspicions that [tested]'s protection of drug trafficking activities not only benefited him [we do not know who he is], but perhaps extended to Secretary of the Interior Manuel Bartlett. While these are merely strong suspicions due to the indications of widespread corruption and extortion activities by [tested], it is not difficult to logically conclude that these activities ultimately benefited high-ranking Mexican government leaders [there is no such logic, because it is not proven how these activities benefited high-ranking officials]."

This is Grillo's "revelation": speculation, suspicion, and "maybe." Nothing can be concluded, because he says nothing. There are no statements from the FBI or the DEA, everything comes from a Mexican source, who does not affirm, only speculates, and we do not even know what he is speculating about.

In the absence of content, the rest of the article is covered with rehashes of Proceso attacks from several years ago and statements on social networks by "opposition deputies." All denied and clarified, for 40 years, even by two U.S. Ambassadors.

However, Grillo's article is taken as a solid source - despite not saying anything - and in a hilarious defamation campaign we find on the front page of Reforma: "Suspicion of Bartlett reactivated in Camarena case"; El Economista writes: "U.S. suspects Bartlett in Kiki Camarena case"; El Sol de Mexico: "U.S. suspected Bartlett's ties to drug traffickers"; Basta: Reopen file on Camarena case" and with similar scope in another 6 newspapers and two front pages (Reforma, El Sol de Mexico). None of this is inferred from the memorandum.

Any astute reader would notice that there is not the slightest news in Grillo's article, but the national press continues to choose to deliberately lie to public opinion. A vulgar campaign that places the media in the sad role they have had in recent years: vile defamers.

End

Background Info

Bartlett has never been prosecuted in Mexico or the United States for working with drug traffickers. However, there have been allegations of him conspiring with gangsters in the Camarena case, including in a report in Mexico’s Proceso magazine in 2021, which said he would be detained for interrogation if he traveled to the United States. A Mexican opposition federal deputy went on to claim Bartlett was the “pez gordo” or “fat fish” behind the Camarena killing.

Former police officers from Jalisco state who are in the United States as witnesses on the case have also accused Bartlett. However, while their statements went into a DEA probe run by agent Hector Berrellez, who took over the investigation in 1989, the declassified memo shows there were suspicions aired by U.S. investigators several years earlier.

Bartlett has denied any involvement in the Camarena killing. In 2021, he described the accusation as “a lie, a fallacy.”

Much of the memo seems to rely on a key source that appears could be a Mexican official of some rank.

Notes from Ioan Grillo

It is good to get a statement from Bartlett on this issue and I think the report still stands firm. I would like to add a few more points on the story and Bartlett’s response.

The memorandum is an official document from the United States government. It is the choice of the U.S. government to declassify this document and there is a clear public interest in seeing this information about a landmark investigation into the murder of a DEA agent in Mexico that profoundly affected bilateral relations.

• The article reproduces and analyses the content of the memorandum accurately. It states that Bartlett has never been prosecuted for drug trafficking and that the memorandum talks about suspicions.

• The memorandum is based on information from various CSA’s or “confidential sources abroad.” However, the report, in the voice of the Legat, or FBI office, also directly supports the suspicions.

• After a request process spanning two years, the U.S. government chose to declassify the document in August this year. CrashOut did not choose this time of publishing with any political motive.

Sources CrashOut, CrashOut