"The United States was investigating García Luna since 2008"

Herrera Valles, on a street near her home in Mexico City.Nayeli Cruz / El Pais

Former police officer Javier Herrera Valles (Durango, 1955) was among the first to denounce the irregularities of Genaro García Luna as head of the police in Mexico.

He began to have suspicions shortly after President Felipe Calderón appointed him Secretary of Public Security in December 2006. By then, Herrera Valles was head of the Regional Security division of the Federal Police, just one notch below García. Moon.

In a few months he accumulated evidence about irregular hiring, strange bids and purchases, various nepotisms ...

In February 2008, he prepared a letter telling what he had seen and tried to get it to Calderón.

That was the beginning of his Calvary.

García Luna suspended him from employment and salary and later opened a dismissal file.

In the absence of a response from the president, Herrera went to the media.

He even sent another letter, with more complaints, in May 2008. But it did not help.

In November, the same Federal Police arrested him.

The prosecution opened a case for organized crime.

Herrera Valles spent four years in jail until he proved that the case was unfounded.

His life has totally changed.

Last week, a judge ordered the prosecution to consider reopening the investigation into witness tampering in the organized crime case that they armed against him.

His complaints against García Luna did not bear fruit in Mexico, but the all-powerful Calderón police chief ended up in prison in the United States, accused of drug trafficking.

Delayed by the pandemic, the process against Genaro García Luna is back on track.

The next hearing is set for October 7.

“Everyone knew what was happening with García Luna!” Exclaims Javier Herrera Valles.

Question.

What did you think when the accusations against García Luna began to be aired in the trial against El Chapo Guzmán in New York?

Reply.

It was something that was already known.

Look, before they arrested me [what happened in November 2008], I was contacted by a person from the United States Embassy, ​​from their agency that is neither DEA nor FBI.

And I was surprised.

I went to Guanajuato to meet with him and I was telling him what I knew, the information that I had.

I told him everything and we agreed that we would continue to see each other.

In other words, they were already investigating García Luna.

They even offered to take me out of the country as a witness!

So when I started to see these statements I said, 'I hope'.

And then they already stopped him.

Q.

When you were detained, some colleagues in the cabinet disagreed, in the case of Guillermo Valdez, who was the head of the intelligence service (CISEN).

A.

Everyone knew.

It was an open secret.

García Luna's collusion was evident.

The one who should be most aware of this is the CISEN.

Look, when they detained me, my wife went to talk to Marisela Morales [then head of the organized crime prosecutor's office, promoted to attorney general in 2012].

She contacted through mutual friends.

And she said that the charges did not hold.

She even said that she was going to do a press release to announce my freedom, she gave my wife her cell phone, everything.

And something happened ... He no longer received my wife.

The instructions changed.

Something happened, because Medina Mora [then head of Marisela Morales] and García Luna did not get along.

So they subordinated themselves because it was a presidential order.

Q.

You sent two letters to Calderón, denouncing mismanagement in the Federal Police.

The first was in February 2008.

R.

In the first, I told that the famous war against organized crime was a farce, only media.

An operation of this size must first be operated and then you announce the results!

Q.

What was the specific complaint?

A.

In January 2007 I went to Guerrero.

It was the second entity where war was declared.

We were the Army, the Federal Police, the Navy, each on his own, without coordination, or direction, or specific plans.

P.

One thing is that there was no coordination and another that it was a sham.

R.

It is that ... Look, it was a simulation, because first, it was not attacked properly.

And those who were attacked were contrary to those of Sinaloa.

Of course, at that time, Sinaloa and the Beltrán Leyva brothers were still together.

Their problem [of the federals close to García Luna] was when the two groups broke up and their deaths began there, Edgar Millán [former Federal Police commissioner, murdered in May 2008], Igor Labastida [coordinator of the area of smuggling of the PF, assassinated in June 2008], for agreements they did not comply with.

I informed the president in the first letter what I could prove with documents.

Q.

What was it about?

R.

The pressure to enter personnel who had failed trust control examinations, who came from the AFI [the police force of the prosecution, García Luna's former home] and who had criminal records for extortion, homicides ... They wanted me to sign responsive letters for them.

They told me that they were people with a lot of experience, necessary for the police.

But I couldn't vouch for it.

And I didn't, so I started having problems.

Q.

What did these pressures consist of?

R.

Oswaldo Luna Valderrábano, Chief of the General Staff of the Federal Police, sent me the documents for the acquisitions [as Regional Security coordinator, they sent him official letters to approve contracts to acquire equipment].

And for the income of new elements, Millán was the one who sent me the documents.

They even told me 'whoever is not with Genaro is against him'.

P.

Mafia style.

A.

Yes.

Herrera Valles was arrested in Mexico City in November 2008. It was his own colleagues who did it.

That day, the ex-policeman went to Televisa to give an interview.

However, it ended up at the prosecutor's office.

They charged him with organized crime based on the statements of two protected witnesses.

He spent four years in prison until he was acquitted.

Herrera Valles denounced Marisela Morales and other officials who participated in his arrest and in the construction of his case in the prosecution.

Last week, a judge ordered the prosecution to analyze whether to reopen the investigation against Morales for witness tampering.

Q.

Before your arrest, were there any attempts at rapprochement by García Luna and his team?

A.

They sent a lawyer to speak to mine.

They offered me to return to my job, with lost wages and all in exchange for my stopping insisting on the media.

But no, no ... Then they arrested my brother.

Q.

That was after I sent the second letter.

A.

Yes.

Q.

Given how little attention they paid to the first letter, why did you send a second letter?

R.

Well, the persecution and monitoring of me and my family had begun.

They were going to photograph me, my son, my wife ... And then I already knew that the president was not deceived.

Q.

Weren't you deluded?

A.

Of course, I thought that García Luna was deceiving him, that he was not really telling him what was happening with the operations against organized crime and everything he was doing within the Federal Police.

I mean, I thought he didn't know.

When all that situation happened to me, I thought 'no, well, this man is well aware'.

And then I sent letters to the PGR (prosecutor's office), to the Ministry of Public Function, to the Public Security commissions in the chambers of deputies and senators ...

Q.

What happened to those letters?

R.

In the Senate, the chairman of the Public Safety Committee was a friend of García Luna.

He treated me, but it was very cold and he did not peel me.

In Deputies there was more understanding.

At the PGR they started an investigation for revealing secrets, but they did nothing with my complaint.

P.

Why do you think Calderón had so much confidence in García Luna?

R.

Society.

Q.

How?

R.

He was already part of the corruption group.

There is no other explanation.

And now it is clearer to me, with the statements of General Dauahare [undersecretary of Defense at the time, he was arrested during Calderón's administration for drug trafficking, later acquitted].

Because he warned you with documents as early as 2007, a year before I said anything!

I did not know that.

Q.

Do you rule out that President Calderón did not know what García Luna was doing?

R.

It is that there is no other explanation.