At the request of the Mexican government, Cuba is investigating the reported presence of Amado Carrillo Fuentes on the island, Cuban ambassador to Mexico Abelardo Curbelo told reporters recently. He added that if the drug lord was in Cuba, he was most likely there under another identity.
Asked about Mexican law enforcement reports that Carrillo Fuentes had lived in a government guest house in Havana, the Cuban ambassador was quoted as saying, ``I can assure that he never got any official attention.''
But in separate interviews this week, three senior Mexican officials with access to the investigation told The Herald that they have good reason to believe that Carrillo Fuentes enjoyed some kind of privileged access on the island, and may have laundered drug money through investments there.
``We know that he has been spending a lot of time in Cuba posing as a foreign investor over at least four years,'' one official said. ``Do you think he could have passed for a wealthy investor all that time without making an investment there?''
Visits since 1994
Mexican attorney general Jorge Madrazo said recently that the drug lord's last trip to Havana was in June, and that he spent three weeks on the island before his return to Mexico City.
Carrillo Fuentes, whom U.S. anti-drug officials have described as the world's biggest drug lord, died in Mexico during a massive cosmetic surgery and liposuction, according to Mexican and U.S. officials.
``We are certain that Amado Carrillo traveled from Santiago de Chile to Havana, and from Havana to Mexico,'' Madrazo told reporters, referring to the drug lord's final days. ``We have two testimonies [to that effect], and the plane tickets.''
Mexico submitted a formal request to Cuba for cooperation in the investigation earlier this month. But officials here say that Mexico is unlikely to press the issue aggressively, given the close relations between the two countries.
Among the additional evidence of Carrillo Fuentes' presence in Cuba that Mexican investigators have come up with:
Family in Havana
According to officials present at Bitar Tafich's interrogations, the informer recalled that Carrillo Fuentes had once even boasted that his Cuban government house was only three blocks away from that of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and that the two had once met by chance while jogging.
Salinas, who left Mexico in 1995 and lived in Cuba before taking up residence in Ireland, did not know Carrillo Fuentes, Bitar Tafich said. The drug lord had greeted the former president with a smile as the two jogged past one another, and Carrillo Fuentes later joked that Salinas would have been surprised at the identity of the other jogger, he said.
Bitar Tafich did not travel with Carrillo Fuentes to Havana in June, but accompanied him to buy baby clothes for his Cuban daughter shortly before taking him to the airport in Santiago de Chile for his last trip to Cuba, investigators say.
In a later interview with the Mexican weekly magazine Proceso, Bitar Tafich said Carrillo Fuentes ``possibly'' went to Cuba, but only ``as a tourist.'' He claimed that he would not have made investments in Cuba because ``it is not a country worth investing in.''
One well-placed Mexican law enforcement official said he personally believes that Carrillo Fuentes was protected in Cuba by high-ranking government officials and made investments there, but added that he doubts the Cubans will ever admit it -- or that Mexico will pursue that matter aggressively.
``Do you think that the Cubans would pass on the opportunity to extradite Carrillo Fuentes to the United States?'' the official asked, noting that Cuba is always looking for ways to make public relations gestures to Washington in hopes of pressing its case for a U.S.-Cuba diplomatic dialogue.
The official speculated that if Cuba did not capture the Mexican drug lord, it was because he was making major investments on the island.
Government protection?
But Mexican officials stressed that their request to Cuba earlier this month for cooperation in the probe into Carrillo Fuentes' activities abroad is not likely to result in a diplomatic squabble over the possible official protection of the drug trafficker in Cuba.
``We are not interested in whether he received government protection; that's something the Americans may care about, but not us,'' one Mexican official said. ``We are only interested in crimes he committed in Mexico and in knowing whether there are any other members of his organization left in Cuba.''
Another official said the reported presence of Carrillo Fuentes in a Cuban government guest house could be the result of a corrupt Cuban official taking bribes.
``The whole issue of the government house is anecdotal,'' the official said. ``There is no desire on our part to expose the Cubans. We have very friendly relations with Cuba.''