Felipe Calderon's 'Operation Cleanup' has Been Nothing But a Mess Tracy Wilkinson - The Los Angeles Times
go to original April 17, 2013

Mexico's former Atty. Gen. Eduardo Medina Mora, left, with then-President Felipe Calderon, in 2009. (Eduardo Verdugo, Associated Press)

MEXICO CITY — Operation Cleanup was a showcase effort to stamp out corruption within Mexico's elite organized-crime bureau. Twenty-five top law-enforcement officials were arrested in the weeks after the operation was launched in 2008, most accused of acting as highly paid moles for a leading drug cartel, the very villains the officials were supposed to be chasing.

Today, the cases against them are a shambles, yet another example of Mexico's systemic corruption and a weak judiciary unable to fix it. The operation is also the most high-profile prosecution among the many that fell apart under the government of President Felipe Calderon, which ended nearly five months ago.

This week, a federal judge freed the highest-ranking of those ensnared by Operation Cleanup. Noe Ramirez Mandujano, Mexico's former anti-drug czar, was absolved and released from prison, where he had awaited this outcome for 4 1/2 years.

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