| | |  Editorials | Opinions 
Mexican Politics and ‘La Barbie’s’ Extradition
 George W. Grayson - San Diego Union-Tribune
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September 17, 2010
 |  | If Valdéz Villarreal spilled the beans in Mexico, he might embarrass the hugely corrupt Federal District and Mexico state law enforcement agencies and, in the process, sully the images of the politically ambitious heads of these jurisdictions. |  | | |
U.S. officials were hoping that Edgar “La Barbie” Valdéz Villarreal, who was captured Aug. 30 in Mexico, would be extradited to the United States. After all, he was born in Texas ; he is wanted for cocaine smuggling and other crimes in Atlanta; and, since taking office, the administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón has dispatched 291 suspects to El Norte, including Gulf Cartel honcho Osiel “Friend Killer” Cárdenas Guillén and former Quintana Roo Gov. Mario “Crooked Face” Villanueva Madrid.
Moreover, the chubby hit man with the cornflower blue eyes abounds with enemies who would not hesitate to kill him in Mexico if they got half a chance.
Yet rumors are rife that the local Public Safety Ministry has guaranteed the 37-year-old notorious drug trafficker and killer immunity from extradition to the United States if he cooperates with the gendarmes in Mexico City.
During two decades of criminality, La Barbie managed to run afoul of powerful members of the underworld. He crossed swords with Los Zetas, then the praetorian guard of the Matamoros-based Gulf Cartel. This clash occurred after Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán escaped from the Puente Grande high-security prison on Jan. 19, 2001. At that time, Váldez Villarreal was working with El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel to take control of the Gulf-Zeta-dominated northern portals to the U.S. He then alienated the legendary El Chapo when he cast his lot with the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO), another Sinaloan narcotics clan that broke with the Sinaloa Cartel.
Within the BLO, he cultivated a hatred for Sergio “El Grande” Villarreal Barragán, who was another top executioner for this bloodthirsty cartel. La Barbie and El Grande not only had a mutual animus but they also vied for status in the BLO’s hierarchy.
Although functioning as the personal bodyguard of Arturo Beltrán Leyva, Valdéz Villarreal was nowhere to be seen on Dec. 16, 2009, when Mexican Navy Marines killed Arturo, the so-called jefe de los jefes. His absence demonstrated to Héctor, Arturo’s brother and the new BLO leader, that La Barbie was a turncoat.
Then La Barbie formed his own gang, “La Compañía,” shipping approximately one ton of cocaine a month northward.
Yet Valdéz Villarreal’s fledging criminal organization suffered repeated blows.
Among the most important setbacks involved the Navy’s capture of Gamaliel “El Güero Huetamo” Aguirre Tavira and three accomplices in Acapulco; and the arrest of José Gerardo “El Indio” Álvarez Vázquez, believed to be involved in the transportation of drugs in Mexico state and Guerrero.
Why the Mexican hesitancy in promising to extradite La Barbie? Safely ensconced in a private cell in an American prison, he might sing like a canary, especially about the two men he hates the most: Zeta chief Heriberto “La Lazca” Lazcano and BLO jefe Héctor “El H” Beltrán Leyva. “They never stop trying to screw me,” he told authorities after his incarceration.
The problem for Mexico’s law enforcement agencies is that Valdéz Villarreal also knows a great deal about the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), the federal police and the state police. “Operación Limpieza” in 2008 revealed that the Beltrán Leyvas had penetrated their nation’s crime-fighting agencies. They had even recruited Noë Ramírez Mandujano, the head of the PGR’s unit for the specialized investigation of crimes.
In light of his closeness to Arturo Beltrán Leyva, La Barbie is certain to know the names of officials who are now on the payroll of one or more cartels.
In addition, La Barbie committed many of his most vicious crimes in the Federal District, whose mayor is Marcelo Ebrard, and in adjoining Mexico state, whose governor is Enrique Peña Nieto.
Both Ebrard and Peña Nieto are likely to run against a Calderón-backed standard-bearer in the 2012 presidential contest. If Valdéz Villarreal spilled the beans in Mexico, he might embarrass the hugely corrupt Federal District and Mexico state law enforcement agencies and, in the process, sully the images of the politically ambitious heads of these jurisdictions.
Politics may be a key reason that Mexico is hesitating to dispatch La Barbie to the United States.
Grayson teaches government at the College of William & Mary. He is the author of “Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?” published by Transaction Press. He can be reached at gwgray(at)wm.edu. |
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