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- <text id=91TT1240>
- <title>
- June 10, 1991: World Notes:Mexico
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- June 10, 1991 Evil
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 43
- World Notes
- MEXICO
- Life in the Posh Lane
- </hdr><body>
- <p> For most inmates, prison is a spartan experience. But not for
- Mexican drug baron Oliverio Chavez Araujo, 33, who has been
- linked to Colombia's Medellin drug cartel and has been
- incarcerated since 1986 at the state prison in Matamoros. After
- members of a rival drug gang shot Chavez in the jaw and nearly
- blinded him three weeks ago, his bodyguards staged a violent
- takeover of the prison; 18 people died. Once in control of the
- complex, Chavez continued to make drug deals from his cell,
- which was outfitted with cellular phones and a fax machine.
- Though state police ringed the prison, he managed to bring in
- doctors and undergo surgery for his wounds.
- </p>
- <p> After five hours of negotiations with assistant attorney
- general Federico Ponce Rojas, Chavez surrendered last week and
- was flown to Mexico City aboard a government jet. Earlier, in
- a letter addressed to the New York Times, Chavez said he had
- been the target of a paid assassin, and would provide evidence
- implicating agents of the Mexican Federal Judicial Police, who
- oversee antidrug efforts. Law-enforcement officials in Mexico
- and the U.S. have long complained about corruption among members
- of the federal police, who have been accused of murder, rape and
- other abuses, including the 1985 torture and killing of Enrique
- Camarena, an American drug-enforcement agent. After Chavez's
- surrender, authorities arrested several top prison and police
- officials.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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