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Title: Gunmen kidnap ex-Mexico presidential hopeful
Source:
Houston Chronicle
URL Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/7006891.html
Published: May 16, 2010
Author: DUDLEY ALTHAUS
Post Date: 2010-05-16 12:45:57 by noone222
Keywords: None
Views: 191
Comments: 5
MEXICO CITY — State and federal police searched into the night Saturday for a prominent member of President Felipe Calderon's political party who was reported kidnapped late Friday near his ranch in central Mexico. Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, 69, the 1994 presidential candidate of the National Action Party and a political mentor to Calderon and to senior members of his Cabinet, went missing shortly before midnight Friday as he arrived alone to his ranch in Queretaro state, about a two-hour drive north of Mexico City, officials said. Searchers found “signs of violence” in the politician's vehicle. Mexican media and online postings — one by a former National Action Party president — reported that Fernandez de Cevallos was dead. But a spokesman for the Mexican attorney general's office denied those reports. A prominent attorney and political power broker, Fernandez de Cevallos is considered a patron of both Mexican Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont and Attorney General Arturo Chavez, key players in Calderon's crackdown on organized crime. In a long political career, Fernandez de Cevallos served as a federal congressman and senator as well as a leader of his center right party. He was an early supporter of Calderon, but backed another candidate in the party's 2006 presidential primaries. An eloquent speaker, Fernandez de Cevallos handily won Mexico's first ever presidential debate in 1994 but then inexplicably quit actively campaigning in the weeks before the vote. He placed second to Ernesto Zedillo, the last president of the 71-year reign of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The victory of National Action Party candidate Vicente Fox in 2000 sealed Mexico as a multi-party democracy. Before flying to Spain to attend a summit with European leaders, Calderon praised Fernandez de Cevallos as a “key actor” in Mexico's democratic transition. Fernandez de Cevallo's apparent abduction comes amid widespread concerns that gangsters have begun targeting senior officials and political figures in response to Calderon's campaign. Assassins on Friday killed the mayoral candidate of Calderon's party in Valle Hermoso, the small city about 25 miles south of the Rio Grande at Brownsville that is the hometown of the founder of the Gulf Cartel, one of Mexico's largest criminal gangs. Calderon will meet President Barack Obama on Wednesday in Washington for talks sure to be dominated by Mexico's anti-crime efforts.
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#4. To: noone222 (#0)
The funny thing about this deal, is that this guy is already dead. If you're kidnapped in Mexico your family will pay, but you aren't coming back. The funniest part about this sort of thing, is that these criminals in Mexico are so brazen as to be able to reach out and grab ANYONE they want, including public officials without fear of reprisal. The reason? The criminals, and the police work hand in hand. Better to be alive and wealthy than to be honest, poor and DEAD. If our criminal element ever got in good with law enforcement, this country would be taken over by criminals overnight. Whoa, wait a minute... It already happened.
Think these guys did it ??? Ha !
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#5. To: TommyTheMadArtist (#4)
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