Around the World

Around the World

Former Mexican governor arrested

Mexico's attorney general ordered the arrest of Mario Villanueva on allegations of drug trafficking and involvement in organized crime just 24 hours after his term ended as the governor of the southern state of Quintana Roo and 10 days after Villanueva apparently went into hiding.

Attorney General Jorge Madrazo Cuellar said the arrest order against the former governor is part of a wide-ranging investigation into the activities of the country's most powerful drug mafia, the Juarez cartel, which has been using Quintana Roo as its primary gateway for importing cocaine from Colombia.

Arrest warrants for involvement in drug trafficking also were issued against more than 100 others, including federal police and prosecutors working in Quintana Roo "who provided protection to narco-traffickers, often with the complicity of local officials," according to a lengthy statement issued by the attorney general's office.

A spokesman for the office declined Wednesday to say whether any of the suspects had been taken into custody.

The announcement of the arrest warrants followed more than a year of intensive investigations by Mexican anti-drug agencies and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Villanueva, who was immune

from criminal prosecution until the end of his gubernatorial term, was the highest-ranking elected official ever pursued by authorities for drug trafficking while still in office.

Mexican authorities have cited the investigation of Villanueva, a member of the country's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, as evidence that corruption is no longer going to be ignored by the

party that has controlled Mexico for seven decades.

But Villanueva, 50, a member of the party's old guard who has engaged in open political warfare with

Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, has charged that the drug investigation against him is a political

vendetta. Zedillo is a major advocate of reform in the ruling party.

On Tuesday, the morning before the arrest order was announced and more than a week after

Villanueva dropped from public view, he purchased full-page advertisements in Mexico City's most

prominent daily newspapers and declared: ``I am not a criminal. I am being persecuted for strictly

political reasons.''

He refused to state his whereabouts. ``Harassed by an investigation aimed at incriminating me at all

costs for the crimes of drug trafficking and drug abuse, I have been forced to ... abandon my land to

avoid being jailed,'' he said in the ad.

The Mexican news media has speculated that Villanueva has fled the country and may be in Panama or

Cuba. Mexican authorities said they have solicited the assistance of Interpol and ``other police

agencies'' to assist in the hunt for Villanueva. Officials of the U.S. anti-drug agency, which has been

investigating Villanueva and Juarez cartel operations in the Yucatan Peninsula, said they are also

aiding in the search.

U.S. and Mexican authorities are investigating numerous bank accounts around the world held in the

name of Villanueva, his associates or family members, including a Swiss bank account that reportedly

contains $73 million.

Law enforcement agencies in Mexico and the United States are also investigating allegations that the

Juarez cartel laundered millions of dollars through hotels, restaurants and other businesses in

Quintana Roo's luxury resort of Cancun, one of Mexico's most popular destinations for American

tourists.

Authorities have said Villanueva is being investigated for allegations that he received millions in

payoffs from the cartel for letting it operate freely in his state. Villanueva has said that Mexican

authorities also accuse him of using cocaine and permitting drug traffickers to use state-owned

airplane hangars to transfer cocaine.

LA TIMES-WASHINGTON POST-04-07-99 2031EDT

Malaysia killer virus bafes virologists

Nine scientists from the United States and other experts from Australia, Taiwan and Japan arrived in Malaysia several weeks ago to help the Southeast Asian country determine the nature of the virus believed to be spreading from pigs to humans.

The CDC said yesterday that 229 people are believed to have been sickened in the last six months in Malaysia. At least 111 have died.

''This is a new, previously unrecognized virus found in humans,'' Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta told The Associated Press by telephone. ''This virus has never been seen before.''

The scientists have been tramping through pig pens and farming communities where the deadly virus first appeared, wearing gloves, gowns and battery-operated respirators while visiting the worst-hit areas.

''We don't know if it's highly infectious. We don't know how people are being infected,'' Skinner said. ''It doesn't appear, right now, that this is being transmitted from person to person, but we're still not going to rule that out.''

Government health experts initially said the outbreak began with the deaths of 15 people last October who succumbed to the Japanese encephalitis virus, which is transmitted by the Culex mosquito. These findings were confirmed by World Health Organization officials from Japan who came to help investigate.

In late February, the number of deaths am villagers and farmers in the hog-rearing district of Bukit Pelandok in central Negeri Sembilan jumped dramatically, prompting health officials to seek further help.

Malaysian virologists flew to the United States on March 17 with samples. Lab analyses quickly proved that the is wasn't Japanese encephalitis. Instead, it resembled a very rare Hendra virus, first detected in Australia in 1994.

Symptoms are the same for both viruses - high fever, aches, eventual coma and death.

A similar illness afflicted 11 slaughterhouse workers in Singapore last month after they handled imported pigs from Malaysia, the CDC said. One of the workers died.

It's not clear what proportion of the illnesses were caused by infections with the new Hendra-like virus or how many were due to Japanese encephalitis, the CDC said.

Some of the dead had been vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis.

The CDC finding plunged Malaysia into further confusion. Pig farmers deserted their homes after police cordoned off their villages. To curb the outbreak, soldiers dressed like astronauts swept through a half-dozen pig-farming districts in an attempt to slaughter 1 million pigs.

Malaysians have been left wondering which virus is which. A 24-hour government hot line set up Wednesday provides detailed information on the Hendra virus. It encourages all workers on pig farms to wash their hands with soap and water after handling pigs.

''But it's not Hendra,'' CDC spokesman Skinner said Thursday. ''It's a Hendra-like virus, and it has a high mortality rate.''

04-09-99