Mexico & Nafta - 15 July 2003

Six years ago, the New York Times ran a series of Pulitzer prize-winning articles about the drug trade in Mexico and the way the trade had permeated the whole establishment. One of these articles, published on 23 February 1997, used coincidence and anonymous sources to claim that Beltrones was one of the most compromised politicians. The NYT piece was reproduced by Mexican newspapers as if it was holy writ. 

Beltrones challenged the story. He has never been prosecuted. Nor was his US visa revoked. Senior officials in the US Drug Enforcement Agency said that he is not suspected of anything. 

This year, Keith Rosenblum, another US reporter, dismantled the innuendos that formed the core of the case against Beltrones. Rosenblum is the author of No Accuser, Nor Crime But You're Guilty. Rosenblum, who worked for two Arizona newspapers and was the press chief for an Arizona congressman, Jim Kolbe, concluded that the NYT had no first-hand evidence linking Beltrones to the drug trade.

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