A freed Yanira Maldonado not bitter over Mexican drug arrest

"I still love Mexico"


Guadalajara -
Goodyear, Arizona resident Yanira Maldonado, arrested last week on charges that she was trying to smuggle 12 lbs. of marijuana into the United States near the Nogales border crossing, was released late last night, according to media sources. Case of "Mormon mule" Yanira Maldonado is Mexico's latest embarrassment, and Peña Nieto's latest headache.

Prosecutors reviewed security tapes which showed that Yanira and her husband, Gary, had boarded a commercial bus in Sonora state with only blankets, water bottles and small hand items. They had traveled to Mexico to attend the funeral of Yanira's aunt. Authorities dropped the case based upon the tapes.

Yanira, 42, is Mexican by birth but a naturalized U.S. citizen. Her arrest raised an outcry in the U.S. and infuriated the American media.

A Nogales attorney who defended Yanira during a preliminary hearing said that his client had "lived through a nightmare." But he insisted, "there is justice in Mexico."

Yanira, a self-professed "devout Mormon," mother of seven and grandmother of two, told the press shortly after her release, "Many thanks to everyone, especially my God who let me go free, my family, my children, who with their help, I was able to survive this test. I still love Mexico. It's not Mexico's fault."

According to this Huffington Post report, Gary Maldonado claims he saw a man flee the area of a retén, a military checkpoint along the highway where the bus was searched and the marijuana was discovered by Mexican troops on May 22.

Buses and commercial vehicles are frequenlty used by drug traffickers to transport their merchandise north, usually without the knowledge of drivers. But U.S. Border Patrol records show many Americans have been arrested in recent years while acting as well paid confederates of the cartels, often hauling marijuana (Mexican drug traffickers find ready assistance in mules carrying American passports).

Mexico is about to enter month 78 of a brutal drug war which began in December 2006. It contends, as do Guatemala and Nicaragua, that up to 90% of the drugs which pass through Central America are destined for the U.S. market, leading to grave political and social instability and rampant common crime in the region. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) agrees with the claim.

As many as 70,000 people may have died in Mexico's drug conflict. Many in the U.S. argue that legalization, especially of marijuana, is the answer, but Mexicans appear overwhelmingly opposed to the idea. Former president Vicente Fox and ex-Microsoft exec want to "open pot trade with Mexico".

May 31 - Mexico "remains dominated by corruption"

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