Mario Gonzalez Held by Gunmen (Image from YouTube)

Mario Gonzalez was kidnapped on 21 October and appeared in two narco-videos in which he implicates himself and his sister, Patricia Gonzalez, as collaborating with drug cartels during her recently-concluded tenure as attorney general of Chihuahua.

Patricia Gonzalez, who left her post a month ago, has denied the claims, saying that her brother was clearly being coerced to make the statements. 

Some of those named in the narco-videos were killed within 24 hours of the videos’ release.

Fernando Ornelas, the former operations coordinator of CIPOL, was killed along with his brother, a wrestler, shortly after their names were mentioned on camera in the videos.

The video has caused quite a stir in Mexico, as Patricia Gonzalez was outspoken against police corruption during her tenure, and was praised as a reformer from War on Drugs advocates on both sides of the border.

Others, however, are unsure about the accusations.

The Governor of Chihuahua, Cesar Duarte Jaquez, has promised an investigation into the allegations in cooperation with the federal attorney general.  The results of their investigation, he promised, would be released to the public.

And Julian Lebaron, relative of a Mormon leader who was captured and killed in Juarez in July 2009, has spoken out against Patricia Gonzalez as well.

With ties between government, police and cartel members so intertwined, it is difficult to ascertain who is guilty and who is innocent in the drug wars.

Even Patricia Gonzalez herself acknowledged the relationship, telling the Washington Post that people “believe there are close ties between drug trafficking and government institutions.”

The death toll in Mexico’s War on Drugs has reached over 7,000 in 2010 alone, and close to 30,000 since Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon declared a War on Drugs in 2007. 

October was the deadliest month on record in Juarez ever, with 352 deaths in one month alone.

Violence in Ciudad Juarez has been acute in recent years as La Linea and the Juarez Cartel have been battling for control over the Juarez-El Paso entry-point into the United States drug market with a rival cartel organization from Sinaloa. 

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