MEXICAN OFFICIAL INTIMIDATED MAGAZINE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940038-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 15, 2011
• Sequence Number: 38
• Publication Date: October 3, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940038-8
A,T"7Lt A LN tQ T
Gr4 PAGE
WASHINGTON POST
3 October 1986
JACK ANDERSON and DALE VAN ATTA ml~
Mexican Official Intimidated Magazine
The Central Intelligence Agency has learned
that a Mexican cabinet member's subordinate
trie unsuccessfully to bribe the editors of a
Mexican news magazine to kill a critical report on
the ca met official.
Informed CIA and Mexican law enforcement
sources ve to us t at t e uncovere an
attempt t o ormer c ie o t e a eral
Directorate of uric , Jose Antonio Zorilla, to pay
the editors of roceso million worth o sos,
with a promise-of
mi on more t e agree to
spike a story t ey a o tam on ri s boss.
Interior mister Manuel Bart ett Diaz.
T u foldin for Mexican police and
CIA agents with the publication in Mexico it of
an auto iographical book, "The residents," by
Pr so s u is er u to erer.
As we reported recently, t e k contains the
full story that Proceso never printed the 1983
kidnaping of Bartlett's teen-age niece and nephew
from a religious commune in Venezuela, arranged
by the interior minister as a favor to his sister, the
children's mother.
In his book, Scherer also tells how Bartlett's
minion, Zorilla, succeeded in intimidating Proceso's
editors with threats of violence. Mexican reporters
and columnists have been threatened often in the
past by government officials, and some have been
killed.
But Scherer did not relate the unsuccessful
attempt at a bribe by Bartlett's emissary. Proceso's
editors would not comment on the matter,
"especially to an American reporter," one of them
told us.
However. our CIA and Mexican police
said that Zorilla later bra 11
to fellow lice
officials that We had often oceso s editors to kill
t e Bart ett stor wtt out paymQ em "a sinole
Peso" o e million pesos he had in cash. It is
no es is au o the
bribe attempt.
is Bartlett is a "iron hand" of President Miguel de
nr~~
secret profile. the has this to say about him:
"A pelf-described political animal, Bartlett is
probably one of de la Madrid's closest advisers on
domestic political affairs. [He] has the ear of the
president on a wide range of issues ....
"As de la Madrid's campaign manager and de
facto head of the [ruling party] during 1981-82,
Bartlett established control over many of the party
mechanisms, and he directed the vote-ri gging
operation during de la Madrid's election ....
Here's how the CIA report describes the police
force that allowed Zorilla and Bartlett) to
intimi ate roceso s editors: a most a ective
civilian internal security force is the Federal
Directorate of Security (DFS) subordinate to
Manuel Bartlett .... The DFS fields about 1,300
genes at ~ Q . -- -- ers and
a ea Quart at
branches in all of the states .... .
e irectorate s main responsibility is to
monitor suspected dissidents and opposition groups
with a view to discovering and investigating any
possible subversive efforts. The DFS does not
hesitate to conduct searches and seizures and even
to detain and interrogate individuals suspected of
subversion."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940038-8