A cardinal mentioned as a possible future pope is being
investigated for possible money laundering, Mexico’s justice department has
confirmed.
The investigation was sparked by complaints from a former attorney general who
has a long-running dispute with Guadalajara Cardinal Juan Sandoval over the
investigation into the shooting death of Sandoval’s predecessor, a justice
department spokesman said.
The investigation was revealed by the newspaper Reforma, which reported that
federal investigators had asked Mexico’s National Banking and Securities
Commission to turn over all banking records for the past seven years for
Sandoval, his late mother and 10 brothers and sisters.
Sandoval read a statement from the Mexican council of Catholic bishops
questioning the motive behind the justice department investigation, during a
press conference yesterday at his home in the town of Tlaquepaque.
“We are worried that this investigation could be motivated by personal
interests in order to discrediting the cardinal (Sandoval) with the possible
goal of derailing the process of clarifying the assassination of Cardinal (Juan
Jesus) Posadas (Ocampo),” said Sandoval, reading from a statement. He refused
to answer questions.
Also being investigated are Jose Antonio Ortega Sanchez, a lawyer who
reportedly represented Sandoval during investigations into the death of his
predecessor; Jose Maria Guardia, the owner of a race track in the northern city
of Ciudad Juarez and partner in several gambling outfits in Mexico; Fernando
Guzman, a federal congressman from President Vicente Fox’s National Action
Party; and Jose Salazar Lopez, another former cardinal from Guadalajara who
died in 1991.
Reforma published photographed excerpts of a justice department document, dated
August 22 and marked “urgent and confidential” that requested information on
bank accounts, money transfers, stock transactions and credit activities inside
and outside of Mexico. The newspaper did not say how it obtained the document.
Justice department spokesman Javier Herrera said the investigation was being
conducted because of a complaint by Jorge Carpizo, who was head of the justice
department at the time of the 1993 killing of Sandoval’s predecessor, Cardinal
Posadas.
Herrera did not release other details. However, it would be very unusual for
such a complaint by itself to trigger such an extensive investigation.
Federal investigators have repeatedly concluded that feuding drug traffickers
mistook Cardinal Posadas for a rival in the heat of a gun battle at
Guadalajara’s airport and shot him as he stepped out of his luxury car.
Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix was convicted of playing a role in the
cardinal’s killing.
Sandoval, Congressman Guzman and others have claimed that Carpizo and other
officials covered up evidence that Posadas was killed because he knew about
top-level government involvement in drug trafficking.
The outcome could affect Posadas’ eligibility for sainthood as a martyr.
Sandoval himself has occasionally been mentioned as a possible future pope.