MEXICO: Attorney General says arrest of flamboyant ex-mayor is not political 'witch hunt'

Record ID: 304158

  • Title: MEXICO: Attorney General says arrest of flamboyant ex-mayor is not political 'witch hunt'
  • Date: 8th June 2011
  • Summary: DURANGO, MEXICO (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AUTHORITIES DIGGING IN MASS GRAVE / BODIES SEEN IN VAN
  • Embargoed: 23rd June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico, Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAAMG9Q4ZATOIC1U0E5S7DCGMTT
  • Story Text: Mexico's Attorney General Marisela Morales said there were no political motives behind the arrest of Mexican gambling tycoon Jorge Hank Rhon, an eccentric former mayor of Tijuana who collects exotic animals.
    Hank Rhon - a millionaire businessman who owns a successful chain of casinos, a soccer team and racetrack - was arrested in an upscale Tijuana neighborhood on Saturday (June 4) after the army found a large weapons cache in his home.
    "Hank's arrest is not an electoral manoeuvre in any way. As I mentioned a while ago, when public security officials arrest people and investigations link them with criminal activities it is made known to the prosecutors' office."
    Hank Rhon, 55, belongs to a prominent political family linked to the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. His arrest could become a flashpoint ahead of hotly contested gubernatorial elections in the State of Mexico next month.
    His father, Carlos Hank Gonzalez, a former federal cabinet minister and mayor of Mexico City, was denounced in a U.S. government report for helping drug gangs but the U.S. attorney general at the time said the report was inconclusive.
    Hank Gonzalez died in 2001 after earning a reputation as a powerful political operator inside the PRI, which ruled Mexico for seven decades before being voted out of power in 2000.
    The party is angling for a presidential comeback in 2012.
    The PRI's national leader said he hoped the arrest was not a political "witch hunt," local media reported.
    A colorful character who often sports a red crocodile-skin vest, Hank Rhon was mayor of Tijuana, a busy drug trafficking corridor city across from San Diego, California, from 2004 to 2007. He once ran for governor of Baja California state but lost.
    Morales also said authorities were having difficulties identifying dozens of bodies pulled victims out of a nearby mass grave in a stream of unrelenting violence in the state of Durango.
    "In Durango's case, it's more difficult to identify bodies because they have been buried for a long time and also the bodies were not extracted carefully from the graves and that complicates their identification. However, investigations are being carried out by local authorities and we are collaborating."
    Mexico is enmeshed in a violent war against drug cartels that has killed more than 44,000 people in the past four years and uncovered many cases of official corruption.
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