Source of video shot in Bellagio at issue

E. Eduardo Castillo

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 | 9:48 a.m.

MEXICO CITY -- Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador alleged Monday that the U.S. and Mexican federal governments as well as a casino were involved in a scandal that has shaken his administration.

During a news conference, Lopez Obrador repeated allegations that the Mexican government was plotting against him because of his popularity, which has consistently put him at the top of polls ahead of the 2006 presidential race.

Lopez Obrador has been trying to cope with vidotapes, widely televised last week, showing his city finance director gambling at the VIP section of the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas. Copies of extravagant hotels bills also were shown.

Another videotape showed businessman Carlos Ahumada handing tens of thousands of dollars to Rene Bejarano, one of Lopez Obrador's political allies and his former secretary.

Both the finance director, Gustavo Ponce, and Ahumada have disappeared and are being sought to by authorities who suspect they were involved in multimillion-dollar frauds.

The mayor said he would appear at a mass meeting in the city's main plaza on Sunday to present evidence supporting his allegations that rivals were trying to destroy his administration due to his popularity.

"They presumably filmed it -- and this is what I am going to show -- with the collaboration of U.S. government agents," he said.

Asked if he meant the CIA, Lopez Obrador replied, "DEA," a reference to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

"The only way to get those images and the hotel bills is though the request of an organ of the U.S. government," he said, adding, "Those casinos do not give information to just anybody."

Lopez Obrador suggested the reason might be a money-laundering probe, and he insisted that the hotel, too, must have been involved in the videotaping: "The hotel contributed. There are hotel images."

Mexico's government has repeatedly denied any involvement. The U.S. Embassy said it would not comment, DEA spokesman Ed Childress said he didn't know anything about the allegation and the hotel company denied it.

"We fiercely protect the privacy of our guests and would only release information, videotape or other records under the order of a court," said Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM MIRAGE, which owns the Bellagio Hotel and Casino.

Sources familiar with the case say there was no court order and the casino doesn't have ground-level cameras of the sort shown on Mexican television.

Earlier Monday, the newspaper Reforma published a letter from Ahumada alleging that city officials had tried to extort money from him to support Lopez Obrador's presidential ambitions.

Lopez Obrador denied that and noted that Ahumada's allegations arose after city prosecutors began to investigate allegedly fraudulent contracts Ahumada's companies had signed with city boroughs.

Members of the mayor's Democratic Revolution Party met over the weekend to consider the possible expulsion of its former president, Rosario Robles, who was close to Ahumada, and two other officials who acknowledged taking money from him that they say were political donations.