Around the World

Around the World

Chinese leader to make U.S. visit

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sun Yuxi said he had "nothing to add" to earlier statements that Zhu would travel to the United States this month. The White House has announced that Zhu will arrive April 6 and visit several U.S. cities. The visit is part of an effort to improve ties between Chinese and U.S. leaders.

The Foreign Ministry's silence is one of several indications that China's leadership is debating the wisdom of sending Zhu to the United States. The prime minister wants to make the trip, one Chinese source said, but other, more conservative elements in China are using the NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia as an excuse to raise questions about his journey.

Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary William Daley, in China on an official trip, said he saw no reason to worry.

"I've not heard any speculation . . . as to any chance that (the trip) would be canceled or postponed," Daley told a news conference in the southern city of Guangzhou.

China is angry at the United States for leading the bombing campaign against Yugoslavia and for Washington's decision to sponsor a resolution critical of China's human rights record at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Its officials also are concerned about what they fear to be a rising tide of anti-Chinese feeling in the United States, where China recently has been accused of stealing nuclear weapons secrets.

China's reaction to the attacks on Yugoslavia has been unusual, however, in its virulence. One state-run newspaper said the United States and its allies have "raped" Yugoslavia. Chinese papers are routinely comparing the U.S.-led air assault with Nazi Germany's attacks on Yugoslavia during World War II. State-run television has reported an avalanche of letters to the Yugoslav Embassy from Chinese volunteering to fight NATO.

Western and Chinese sources said the intensity of the reaction has led them to conclude that factions within the Communist Party that oppose both Zhu and closer U.S. ties are using NATO's attacks as a way to lambaste Washington and hurt Zhu's chances for a successful visit to the United States.

"The language in the press is very, very Cold War," said a Chinese academic. "I mean, even if we oppose the bombing, we should not be equating the United States with Nazi Germany right before a major leader goes to Washington."

David Shambaugh, an expert on China at George Washington University and the Brookings Institution, said China is "seriously reevaluating" Zhu's trip, adding that the "dodge" at the Foreign Ministry was one indication.

Shambaugh listed three reasons why the trip could be canceled: the NATO attacks on Yugoslavia, the fact that the summit looks unlikely to produce any concrete results and a Cold War mentality in Washington.

Several Chinese sources, while acknowledging serious strains in Beijing's ties with Washington, said they believe Zhu will make the trip.

LA TIMES-WASHINGTON POST-04-01-99 1804EST

Mexican state governor disappears

Gov. Mario Villanueva of the Yucatan Peninsula state of Quintana Roo had been under police surveillance but apparently eluded the agents who were tailing him, an official said.

Villanueva's six-year term, during which he, as a sitting governor, has immunity from prosecution, ends Monday, and the Mexican media and law enforcement officials suggested Wednesday that he may have gone into hiding or fled the country to avoid arrest.

If Villanueva, a member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), were to flee Mexico and evade charges, it would be a stunning blow to the country's justice system. For decades, corruption at the highest levels of Mexico's federal and state governments has been well documented, but few have ever been held accountable. Mexican officials have cited the year-long investigation of Villanueva as a symbol of the democratic change shaking Mexico and a signal that corruption is no longer being ignored within the PRI, which has run the country for the past 70 years.

Officials in the governor's press office, noting they were besieged by media inquiries, said they could provide no information about Villanueva's whereabouts, fueling speculation in the Mexican news media that he was dodging investigators.

"If anybody knows where the governor is, please tell me," the state's second-ranking official told the daily newspaper El Universal.

Villanueva has denied allegations of wrongdoing, most recently in a press conference last week.

Villanueva has been the subject of an intense and unusually public investigation by U.S. and Mexican

law enforcement agencies into allegations that he received millions of dollars in payoffs for protecting

drug cartel kingpins and their shipments during his administration. In recent years, the Yucatan

Peninsula _ and more specifically Villanueva's state, which includes the internationally famous beach

resort Cancun _ has become a main transit point for Colombian cocaine being shipped to the United

States.

Villanueva's apparent disappearance after failing to show up for Tuesday's scheduled round of

questioning by federal law enforcement officials capped weeks of jousting between Villanueva and his

government accusers.

Two weeks ago, in an hour-long speech to judges and lawyers in his home state in which he criticized

the government's investigation, Villanueva provided some of the most detailed information yet of the

attorney general's case against him. Villanueva said investigators allege that he permitted drug

traffickers to use state-owned airport hangars to load and unload drug shipments, maintained close

ties with the leaders of Mexico's most powerful drug mafia and used cocaine himself.

Law enforcement officials from the United States, Mexico and other countries also are investigating

bank accounts in the names of Villanueva, family members and friends that allegedly contain millions

of dollars, including one Swiss account with $73 million in Villanueva's name, according to officials

familiar with the investigations. Other bank accounts in the United States, Mexico, the Cayman

Islands and the Bahamas also have been scrutinized.

Mexican authorities also are considering charging Villanueva with drug trafficking, alleging that

during his term as governor he was a chief protector for the Juarez cartel, Mexico's most powerful

drug mafia. In recent years, the cartel has moved much of its operation to Quintana Roo, where

alleged kingpin Ramon Alcides Magana runs the cartel's activities, with help from Villanueva, U.S.

and Mexican law enforcement officials allege.

_(Begin optional add end)

Under a law intended to protect elected officials from malicious vendettas by political opponents,

sitting governors have immunity from arrest and prosecution unless they are first impeached by the

lower house of Congress. But rather than launch a politically charged impeachment procedure,

Mexican officials decided to wait until Villanueva's term expired to attempt to prosecute him.

Law enforcement officials said they always were concerned about the risk that he could flee before his

tenure ends this Monday.

Last week, after a daylong interrogation by senior officials of Mexico's federal anti-drug agency,

Villanueva called a news conference and told reporters, "I'll come away clear from this affair and all

its insinuations and accusations because they are baseless."

But Villanueva failed to appear Tuesday in Mexico City for a second meeting with federal anti-drug

investigators, instead sending a letter reiterating his denials of wrongdoing.

LA TIMES-WASHINGTON POST-04-01-99 1356EST

04-02-99