Captors post video of Mexican former prosecutor's brother

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Agency
A video posted Monday on the Internet features the kidnapped brother of the former attorney general of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua saying that both siblings collaborated with drug traffickers.

Mario Gonzalez, abducted Oct. 21 in Chihuahua city, the state capital, appears surrounded by five men wearing camouflage and ski-masks, with assault rifles trained on the captive as he answers questions from someone off camera.

A spokesperson for the state AG's office confirmed that the man seen in the 10-minute video is the brother of former Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez.

"We cannot issue a value judgment on the veracity or falsity of the information contained in the cited video, since in any case such a statement in that regard will have to come from a serious investigation on the part of the competent authorities," the secretary-general of the state government, Graciela Ortiz, said in a statement.

"The important thing is that citizens have the certainty that the state will act objectively and impartially to apply the full rigor of the law in punishing any offense and against whomever turns out to be responsible," she said.

As attorney general, Patricia Gonzalez provided protection to La Linea, the armed wing of the Juarez drug cartel, Mario Gonzalez says on the video.

She also ordered several murders, including the 2008 slaying of journalist Armando Rodriguez, Mario said, admitting that he acted as a "liaison" between the Juarez cartel and his sister.

He said the cartel paid anywhere from $50,000 and $200,000 a month for the protection provided by Patricia Gonzalez during her time as Chihuahua's top law enforcement official.

Chihuahua is Mexico's most violent state, thanks largely to Ciudad Juarez, a gritty metropolis just across the border from El Paso, Texas, where more than 2,300 people have been slain so far this year.

Most of the mayhem is attributed to a battle between the Juarez control and the rival Sinaloa organization to control the main drug-smuggling route into the United States.