Character assassination
I’d said that the Calderón Administration was using narcotics prosecutions for political reasons, something I noted when the charges against several mayors (all from the PRD) arrested in Calderón’s home state of Michaocán on charges related to corruption and narcotics trafficking were all released for lack of evidence… as soon as state elections were over.
Following what was described as an attack on U.S. diplomatic personnel by “rogue police officers” in January 2012 (though the U.S. “diplomats” being “contractors” for some U.S. security firm who were spirited out of the country before the alleged crime could be properly investigated, it was hard to tell what happened), which seemed to be spun as the fault of the PRD-controlled Federal District administration, , six high ranking military officers were arrested and charged in May 2012 with working for the Beltran-Leyva gang (page 9 of the PDF) .
The six — an undersecretary of defense, two generals, a major and Lieutenant-Colonel Silvio Hernández Soto were recently exonerated of all charges, and Lt. Col. Hernández is claiming that he was threatened by the Federal Narcotics Prosecutors (SIEDO, for its initials in English) in an attempt to make him implicate then Presidential Candidate Andres Manuel López Obrador.