Former President Hipolito Mejia denied that his Armed Forces Minister Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez had warned him that former army captain Quirino Ernesto Paulino was a drug trafficker. He also denied on a special joint production of El Dia and Uno + Uno morning talk shows that he was behind Paulino’s promotion to the rank of captain. He told TV hosts Huchi Lora and Juan Bolivar Diaz that the President only promotes officers above the rank of lieutenant, and never lower ranks like captain.
“What Soto Jimenez said is not true. The National Drug Control Department was not managed by the Armed Forces,” he said. “There was never an exchange of confidential information. That sounds like blackmail,” he said.
When asked about the document from Soto Jimenez’s office that his former chief of staff showed to the press as proof that he had acted on the President’s instructions when reinstating Quirino Paulino, Mejia said: “I did not re-instate him. That is false. The President only signs from lieutenant upwards and signs the promotions he receives. Supposing that it was like he says, one would never sign on someone to be an assassin, or drug trafficker. I signed 25,000 promotions,” he said.
Huchi Lora commented that Quirino Paulino was not just another military officer up for promotion; that he was a multimillionaire, and asked if Mejia did not find it strange that a multimillionaire wanted to be a low ranking officer. The former President responded: “There are hundreds like that.”
He said that Quirino Paulino would surely tell his side of the story in NY. Paulino’s case for drug trafficking and money laundering is being heard in the US District Court Southern District of New York. “What I want is that the organizations here and there (NY) tell the truth. I am convinced the truth will prevail,” said Mejia.