Officials Deny Allegations Of Ex-Police Chief

Mexican officials distanced themselves Monday from accusations by the former national police chief, who accused an ex-president of ordering an assassination and a slain cardinal of drug trafficking.

Juan Pablo de Tavira, the former head of the Federal Judicial Police, made his accusations in radio and newspaper interviews last week.

“The attorney general’s office not only distances itself from his statements, but also notes that in most of the cases it has entirely different theses,” the federal attorney general’s office said.

De Tavira still works in the attorney general’s office but “does not form any part of the teams of investigation … related to the cases he spoke of during his interviews,” the agency said.

De Tavira accused former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari of pronouncing “a death sentence” against candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio.

Salinas has repeatedly denied any relationship to the slaying, and De Tavira offered no evidence in the interview, which was also reported by the daily El Universal on Thursday.

Colosio was shot at a campaign rally in the border city of Tijuana in March 1994. Current President Ernesto Zedillo replaced him as the candidate for the ruling party.

De Tavira also said that the late Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo was involved in drug trafficking, as was papal representative Girolamo Prigione.

Prosecutors claim Posadas Ocampo was killed during a shootout by rival drug gangs at Guadalajara airport when gunmen mistook his car for one supposedly carrying a drug lord. The cardinal had spoken out against drug lords.

Prigione, who retired earlier this year, has denied any involvement in drug trafficking.

De Tavira himself was the focus of a bizarre case. He was poisoned in December 1994 shortly after taking over the police agency. He spent months in a coma.