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García Luna's defense questions "El Rey" to make him say that he paid for an AMLO campaign. "It's not true," replies the ex-narco

2023-02-14T18:05:21.175Z


The former Secretary of Security's lawyer defends that the star witness of the Prosecutor's Office lacks evidence of the alleged bribes and tries to show contradictions in his testimonies. He also tries to sow doubts about the current Mexican president.


The interrogation of the lawyers of Genaro García Luna to the star witness of the Prosecutor's Office, Jesús

El Rey

Zambada García, focused on discrediting the previous statement of the ex-narco of the Sinaloa cartel, remarking that it lacks

concrete evidence on the alleged bribes that he claims he paid to the former Mexican Secretary of Security, and trying to show contradictions in his different testimonies given to the US authorities.

The lawyer César de Castro mentioned the Mexican president,

Andrés Manuel López Obrador

, asking Zambada García if he remembered that in 2013 he declared that he had contributed seven million dollars to a campaign against former president Vicente Fox.

"I couldn't have said that because it's not true," Zambada rebutted.

He assured that he did say that he gave money to the lawyer Gabriel Regino, former Undersecretary of Public Security of Mexico City between 2003 and 2006, who was an adviser to López Obrador (nicknamed AMLO).

It was “campaign money,” he said, without specifying which politician was behind it.

Regino has denied receiving those funds.

Zamabada García affirmed before the jury Monday and Tuesday that in the early 2000s García Luna was paid $1.5 million a month for his help to the Sinaloa Cartel, when he was director of the now-defunct Mexican Federal Investigation Agency. (AFI).

He also recounted that he was involved in two meetings in 2006 at the Champs-Élysées restaurant in Mexico City in which the lawyer Óscar Paredes, a collaborator of the cartel, paid García Luna five million dollars in cash.

[These are the evidences against García Luna so far in the trial]

Jesús Zambada Garcia is questioned by Genaro García Luna's lawyer in court in New York.

JANE ROSENBERG / REUTERS

This morning, García Luna's lawyer tried to show inconsistencies in the ex-narco's testimony, who has spoken about these alleged payments on various occasions in the last 10 years.

He also questioned that there is nothing more than his word to prove the alleged payments to the former official, since he does not have documents, photos or recordings.

"Is it true that you have nothing to corroborate that you paid money to García Luna?" He told her.

When questioned by the prosecutor Saritha Komatireddy, the ex-narco said that he was sure of his testimony and that he has no doubt that he paid bribes to García Luna, beyond details that he may have forgotten.

Linda Cristina Pereyra, García Luna's wife, has been present in court throughout the trial, and there is speculation that

she will testify

in favor of García Luna's defense, after the former secretary decided not to testify.

Once the defense finishes calling their witnesses, each side will present their closing arguments to the jury, so that they can begin deliberating and sentencing.

Money for a political campaign in Mexico

It is not the first time that

El Rey

mentions an alleged payment to Regino in a trial, although this Tuesday he assured that he has never said that the money was going to the current Mexican president, as Castro asked.

“As I recall, I said that [the money] was for the campaign.

But not for López Obrador," said Zambada, who did not specify a date of the alleged payment or offer more details.

After several questions about the supposed contribution to the campaign, the Prosecutor's Office interrupted the interrogation and there was a conversation with the judge, Brian M. Cogan, which has not come to light;

then the questions to

El Rey

on other topics continued. 

A second drug trafficker assures that he paid millionaire bribes to Genaro García Luna

Jan 31, 202301:40

During the trial of Joaquín

El Chapo

Guzmán in November 2008, Zambada testified that the cartel bribed Regino in 2005 because "he was going to be the next Secretary of Security and he was being paid for our protection."

Regino rejected that statement: "It is false that during my exercise of public service, I received any bribe from the witness Jesús Zambada," he wrote on November 20, 2018.

"Memory is memory and it changes"

On Monday, Zambada said the first payment of $3 million was delivered to him in a sports bag and briefcase and that two of Garcia Luna's companions carried the money when they left the meeting.

He also recounted that in a second date, weeks later, he was given another payment of two million.

In 2017 Zambada had mentioned to prosecutors a single meeting, in which García Luna was allegedly paid a million dollars in a portfolio.

At that time, he did not say that the then Secretary of Public Security was accompanied by two people.

'El Rey' Zambada declares in the trial against García Luna that he himself paid him bribes

Feb 13, 202300:37

Throughout various interviews with prosecutors, Zambada has offered a few different details about how those payments occurred, but he attributed it to problems with his memory and failures by those who took notes during his interviews.

“It is impossible to specify the details.

Memory is memory and it changes," he said, "sometimes they write things wrong."

Zambada assured that he has no doubt that he bribed García Luna in exchange for his collaboration with the cartel.

“It is very hard to talk about such an important person.

You think of his family and yourself.

There is a lot of pressure, it is not easy to talk about someone who has so much power, ”he said in the courtroom.

His testimony closed the accusation against García Luna, connecting the stories of other ex-narcos who spoke of a collection of money for the former official, and of the benefits obtained, from receiving secret information on investigations and raids against the cartel to the freedom to traffic even in airports.

The defense has questioned the accusation, indicating that it is based on ex-criminals leading a vendetta against García Luna, who was in charge of persecuting and, in some cases, arresting them.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2023-02-14

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