Mexican
Banker
Tied
to
Drug
Dealing
(and
Presidents)
Sues
Narco
News,
Mexican
Paper
12/22/00
A well-connected Mexican banker has unleashed an American attack-dog lobbying and law firm on two Mexico-based media organizations over their reporting on his alleged drug trafficking. But Roberto Hernandez Ramirez, president of Mexico's Banamex bank, and his hired guns, the Washington-based firm of Akin,Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, may have picked on the wrong pair. Banamex hired Akin Gump to sue Mario Menendez Rodriguez and Al Giordano, the respective publishers of Por Esto!, a Merida, Yucatan, newspaper, and the Narco News Bulletin , an Internet media outlet devoted to uncovering corruption in the drug war throughout the Western hemisphere. (See Narco News at http://www.narconews.com for Giordano's extensive coverage of the lawsuit and Akin Gump's tactics.) The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in New York City, is a venue-shopping continuation of Hernandez' and Banamex's efforts to silence Menendez Rodriguez, who since 1997 has published a series of well-documented articles in Por Esto! building the case that Hernandez' beachfront properties south of Cancun were a center of cocaine trafficking, and that Hernandez also participated in money laundering and bribery. The properties in question were the site of a reception attended by newly elected Mexican President Vincente Fox, US ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow and President Clinton. Fox also repaired to Hernandez' place for a post-election vacation in July. Hernandez hosted a February 1999 meeting between President Clinton and Mexican President Zedillo. His Caribbean property also provided a post-election refuge for incoming Mexican President Vicente Fox. Two separate libel lawsuits against Menendez Rodriguez were thrown out by Mexican judges. In the first case, filed after the first stories in 1997, the presiding judge wrote that "all the accusations... were based on fact" and dismissed the case. Hernandez and Banamex tried again this year, but that case was also thrown out. Perhaps smelling defeat in Mexico, Hernandez opened a second front in the United States in August, when Akin Gump filed its New York lawsuit. Akin Gump lawyer Thomas McLish told the Village Voice the new lawsuit was filed in the US because it "relates to knowingly false statements made in the US." According to Akin Gump's complaint, those statements include reports published in Narco News, as well as remarks Mendendez Rodriguez and Giordano made in New York in March and in interviews on WBAI radio and with the Village Voice. Those remarks reiterated previous reporting done by Menendez Rodriguez and later posted on Narco News. Exhibit A is a Village Voice Press Clips column from late February in which Menendez Rodriguez called Hernandez a "narco-trafficker." Neither Menendez Rodriguez nor Giordano is likely to roll over and die. Menendez has weathered 30 years of muckraking journalism in Mexico, where that sort of reporting has provoked assassinations as often as lawsuits. And Giordano last made the media radar when he brought down the Associated Press's Bolivia correspondent for lobbying on behalf of a private company. "Everything I have printed I know to be true and I have documented with the facts," Giordano told the Village Voice. And, taking the offensive, Giordano gleefully looks forward to deposing Hernandez as part of preparations for his defense. He has also been giving Akin Gump fits as they try to serve him with legal papers. Giordano, who does not publish a street address for Narco News, declined an emailed effort by Akin Gump to have him waive his right to be served. (When DRCNet contacted Akin Gump about the matter, the only information we could get out of them was the fact that they were very interested in finding Giordano. "Do you know where Al Giordano is?," asked attorney McLish. McLish told DRCNet he would fax a statement on the matter. It never arrived.) After repeated unsuccessful efforts to either obtain the waiver or successfully serve the peripatetic Giordano, who is reportedly traipsing around southern Mexico, Akin Gump managed to crash the Narco News e-mail server. Akin Gump insists it was unintentional; Giordano calls it an act of "cyber-war." Intentional or not, Akin Gump's actions damaged Narco News. It also prompted the organization and its allies to set up mirror web sites in case of further attack. The firm has also been leaning on Narco News' web site hosting company, Voxel Dot Net, located in Troy, New York. According to Voxel spokesman Raj Dutt, who said he could not comment specifically on any legal action against his company, Akin Gump contacted Voxel on December 14th. Dutt didn't disclose the content of the call, but he did say that Narco News was "providing a public service" and that Voxel, which also hosts DRCNet, would continue to work with Narco News "until we get a court order basically telling us to shut the site down." Since launching several months ago, Narco News has reported not only on drug war and drug trade corruption, but on the growing intellectual dialogue among Latin America's savants on drug prohibition and the need for policy reform. Both Giordano and Menendez Rodriguez have attained prominent first amendment attorneys. If Banamex can claim a victory in forcing the two journalists to defend themselves in US courts, it could well turn out to be a pyrrhic victory.
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