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The agents were clearly thinking about the recent disappearance of a Houston security consultant named Felix Batista, a former major in the U.S. Army. Over the years, Batista had successfully negotiated resolutions to more than 100 kidnapping and ransom cases, gaining a reputation as one of the most effective consultants who deal with secuestradores, as kidnappers are known here. In December, Batista himself was abducted by armed men outside a restaurant in the city of Saltillo and has not been heard from since.
The two American spies are convinced he is dead -- in part because he allowed himself to be quoted in the press, making him a prime target for the cartels.
According to the spies, the Calderon administration is using the War on Drugs for its own political ends. "The security situation is being used to bolster the conservative government of Calderon and marginalize the left," says Spy One.
"The problem is America," adds Spy Two. "The CIA's mission in Mexico -- - working to stop the flow of drugs into the United States -- has been diluted. They let it slip here because they were focused on Al Qaeda. But terrorists weren't going to infiltrate the Mexican government. That wasn't the real threat."
"The levels of incompetence are amazing," says Spy One.
As the two spies see it, the Felipe case -- and the cascading number of snitches who have emerged since his confession -- typify the slipshod way that U.S. agencies operate in Mexico. The problem, they say, is that much of Mexico's "intelligence" in the War on Drugs has been obtained by interrogations that involve electric shock and other coercive techniques. That's because prosecutors in Mexico are vested with dual responsibilities that give them the power and motivation to extract information by any means necessary.
"In America, prosecutors investigate, but the judge and jury decide the facts," says Santiago Aguirre, a human rights attorney in Mexico City. "Here, statements made to prosecutors are facts. There is no cross examination or right to confront accusers. If a person in Mexico confesses to a prosecutor, that is considered sufficient evidence for a detention -- so there is an incentive to get confessions."
As a result, torture is frequently used as a means of interrogation. "Prosecutors are careful that people aren't tortured while they are in detention," Aguirre says. "The torture takes place before, in an unofficial setting, with unidentified interrogators who wear no uniform." Alberto Bazbaz, the attorney general for the state of Mexico, describes the situation even more bluntly. "Basically we work with the same system that was used during the Spanish Inquisition," says Bazbaz, who is trying to reform his state's justice system. "The principle is the same as it was then -- the same person who accuses you also judges you. All the power is in the hands of the prosecutor."
In Mexico, the American spies tell me, few accusations in the War on Drugs can be trusted.
Intelligence is plentiful -- but, as in the War on Terror, much of it is suspect, given the questionable manner in which it was obtained. "The state of U.S. intelligence in Mexico is terrible," says Spy One. "They are relying on the deceit of people who have been tortured by the Mexicans. It's like Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man -- they'll say anything."