The lawyer who defended Munoz in his seven-year legal battle, Sergio Roldan Ramos, was murdered in Ciudad Juarez last October. And Roldan's partners and other lawyers who have worked for Munoz did not respond to interview requests. Munoz's release, and criminal comeback, dramatize the legal crisis threatening Mexico's modernization. The economy has opened up and opposition political parties are finding a voice. But criminal syndicates are casting a widening shadow and the justice system is riddled with graft and incompetence, mired in archaic procedures and shielded from accountability.
Nothing is respected.
Prosecutors rig evidence and judges sell verdicts according to the highest bidder, without delay, favoring every kind of criminal from drug traffickers to car thieves. Confronted with this crisis, U.S. prosecutors routinely press to extradite traffickers for trial in U.S. courts. Although the extradition of Mexicans is constitutionally barred, officials in Washington say that Mexico has recently vowed to honor future extradition requests. Still, the U.S. government has never successfully extradited a major Mexican drug dealer. Four years ago, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo replaced the entire Supreme Court and established a Judicial Council to attack corruption.