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Mexico's Lopez Obrador Says 'El Chapo' Had Same Power as President

Associated Press

   MEXICO CITY - Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador closed out
   2019 with a parting shot at his predecessors, saying imprisoned drug
   kingpin Joaquin ``El Chapo`` Guzman Loera had had the same power as the
   country's president.

   In a video message from the southern city of Palenque on Wednesday,
   Lopez Obrador recounted his administration's successes in its first
   year and highlighted its challenges--foremost,surging violence. He
   saidthathe had already done away with the high-level corruption that
   was rampant in previous governments,andthatit was crucial to draw a
   bright line between criminal elements and authorities so that the two
   sides do not mingle as they had in the past.

   ``There was a time when Guzman had the same power or had the influence
   that the then president had ... because there had been a conspiracy,and
   that made it difficult to punish those who committed crimes. That has
   already become history, gone to the garbage dump ofhistory,`` Lopez
   Obrador said.

   It appeared to be a reference to the indictment and arrest last month
   of Mexico's former public safety secretary,Genaro Garcia Luna. Garcia
   Luna was public safety secretary in President Felipe Calderon's Cabinet
   from 2006 to 2012. Before joining Calderon's government, Garcia Luna
   led Mexico's equivalent of the FBI, the Federal Investigative Agency,
   under President Vicente Fox.

   He was charged in federal court in New York with three counts of
   trafficking cocaine and one count of making false statements. He had
   been living in Florida and was arrested in Texas.U.S. prosecutors
   allege he accepted millions of dollars in bribes from Guzman's Sinaloa
   cartel and in exchange allowed it to operate without interference.

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