‘Ex-gov helped by accomplices’
Grenade hurts 36
GUATEMALA CITY, April 17, (Agencies): A fugitive former Mexican governor accused of pilfering millions of dollars from state coffers was aided by a network of accomplices who helped him evade justice in Guatemala, where he was eventually captured after six-month manhunt, officials said.
Authorities were tipped off to the presence of ex-Veracruz state Gov
Javier Duarte in Guatemala by the Nov 10, 2016 detention of a person carrying two passports with photographs of Duarte and his wife — but with different names — at the airport in the Mexican border city of Tapachula.
Investigators “identified many homes, telephone numbers and vehicles related to people who helped Javier Duarte from Mexico City in the logistics of his stay and movement in Guatemala,” Omar Garcia Harfuch, head of the Criminal Investigation Agency in Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, told a press conference in Guatemala City.
The 43-year-old former Institutional Revolutionary Party governor had come to symbolize official corruption to many in Mexico, where he is wanted for money laundering and organized crime. He is accused of running a corruption ring that allegedly pilfered millions of dollars from Veracruz’s coffers, and stripped its schools and hospitals of their resources.
Prosecutors have directed Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department to request Duarte’s extradition.