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Few had ever expected Mexico to really prosecute influential former Defense Secretary Salvador Cienfuegos. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has relied more on the army than any other recent president, trusting it with everything from infrastructure projects to operating airports and trains.

Some thought Mexican prosecutors might dismiss the case on technical grounds of inadmissible evidence. But they went further than that, absolutely clearing Cienfuegos of accusations that he helped a drug cartel in return for bribes in a move that could mar Mexico's already-bumpy relations with the United States in the post-Trump era.

In a surprisingly quick process, Mexico's Attorney General's Office announced that Cienfuegos presented evidence in five days that it said completely disproved what it described as a seven-year U.S. investigation of the now-retired general.

``The conclusion was reached that General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda never had any meeting with the criminal organization investigated by American authorities, and that he also never had any communication with them, nor did he carry out acts to protect or help those individuals,'' the office said in a statement.

It said Cienfuegos had not been found to have any illicit or abnormal income, nor was any evidence found ``that he had issued any order to favor the criminal group in question.''