General Salvador Cienfuegos, in a file photograph.José Méndez / EFE
The hasty exoneration of General Salvador Cienfuegos has resulted in an absurd and highly damaging clash between the United States and Mexico.
There is no doubt that the confidential report that sustained the accusation against the once almighty chief of the Army from 2012 to 2018 is questionable, and it is no less so that its publication with great fanfare by the Mexican Government is a slap in the face to the confidence of a necessary ally in the war on drugs as Washington.
Whether or not there is sufficient evidence to prosecute him, the way in which the Mexican authorities have resolved the challenge of investigating Cienfuegos has damaged his credibility and unnecessarily renewed the suspicions surrounding a case of extraordinary gravity.
The military man was arrested on October 15 in Los Angeles for drug trafficking and money laundering.
The United States anti-drug agency (DEA) argued that the general, while commanding the fight against drug trafficking, received bribes in exchange for protecting an extremely violent cartel, and that he even facilitated the corruption of other high positions.
His surprise arrest, the result of a two-year investigation, was a blow to the Government of Mexico.
Not only because the police operation had been hidden from him, but because under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador the armed forces, of which Cienfuegos is one of the most prominent leaders, have achieved unprecedented power.
The response was overwhelming.
With the argument that the commitment to inform Mexico had been violated, López Obrador pressed the Executive of Donald Trump on all possible fronts.
The offensive worked and on November 18, the charges were withdrawn and the military returned under the promise that the investigation would be completed in Mexican territory.
Just 58 days later, this past Thursday night, the prosecution announced in a brief statement the exoneration of Cienfuegos for not having found any evidence that implicated him with organized crime.
Faced with the storm unleashed by the measure, the president came out in defense of the prosecution (with such vehemence that the decision seemed more like his) and in a verbal escalation he has accused the DEA itself of fabricating the case and acting for electoral reasons.
As proof of his accusations, he has made public the police file sent by the United States.
Beyond the discussion about the solvency of the evidence collected by the DEA, acting as if Mexico were a state outside the penetration of drug trafficking is clearly blind.
The imprisonment in the United States of Genaro García Luna, Secretary of Security during the six-year term of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), or the same escape of El Chapo Guzmán from the maximum security prison of El Altiplano in 2015 have shown the world the weakness of its public structures.
Precisely for this reason, the challenge assumed when receiving the general back consisted of extreme rigor, exhausting all formal procedures and dispelling any doubts about the criminal solvency of Mexico.
This objective has not been achieved.
Neither the unusual speed of the prosecution in closing the matter, whose accusatory basis had been validated by US judges and prosecutors, nor the conversion of the case into a political battle with Washington should be a source of pride for anyone.
On the contrary, a few days after the inauguration of Joe Biden as president of the United States, what has been achieved is to further poison the collaboration between both countries, something that only benefits the drug trafficker, and to support the idea that Cienfuegos and the military leadership are untouchable.