{"id":183384,"date":"2018-09-28T03:08:01","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T07:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=183384"},"modified":"2018-09-28T03:08:01","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T07:08:01","slug":"mexico-ex-governor-pleads-guilty-corruption-gets-9-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/09\/28\/mexico-ex-governor-pleads-guilty-corruption-gets-9-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico ex governor pleads guilty to corruption, gets 9 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Duarte \u2014 accused of embezzling millions in state money \u2014 took a leave from the governorship of Veracruz and fled to Guatemala before being extradited back to Mexico in July 2017 to face justice. (File Photo<\/a>: @Javier_Duarte\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MEXICO CITY \u2014 The former governor of Mexico’s Gulf coast state of Veracruz pleaded guilty to charges of organized crime and money laundering, and received a nine-year sentence, prosecutors said Thursday.<\/p>\n

The plea deal reached with Javier Duarte was an anti-climactic end to Mexico’s highest-profile corruption case in recent years and sparked anger among critics since he can apply for parole in as little as three years.<\/p>\n

Duarte \u2014 accused of embezzling millions in state money \u2014 took a leave from the governorship of Veracruz and fled to Guatemala before being extradited back to Mexico in July 2017 to face justice.<\/p>\n

Along with the prison sentence, Duarte had 41 properties seized as part of the deal. But he will not have to pay reparations.<\/p>\n

“In cases like these, we are never satisfied,” said federal prosecutor Felipe de Jesus Munoz. “We have to follow what the law says.”<\/p>\n

Munoz said that after serving 4 1\/2 years \u2014 half the sentence \u2014 Duarte could apply for parole, and that he will be credited for the 1 1\/2 years he has already spent in prison.<\/p>\n

“It’s all a circus,” said President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who made fighting corruption a focus of his campaign. He said the sentence is a demonstration of the lack of political will to fight corruption by outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto since not all the evidence against the ex-governor was presented.<\/p>\n

But current Veracruz Gov. Miguel Angel Yunes said that despite the federal plea deal, Duarte still faces an array of state charges.<\/p>\n

“It will be many years before Duarte gets out of prison,” said Yunes.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Duarte used much of the embezzled money to buy properties.<\/p>\n

Yunes said that state authorities estimated that a total of about $120 million in properties, money and possessions had been seized from Duarte.<\/p>\n

And Yunes revealed that state prosecutors have issued a warrant for Duarte in the case of the forced disappearance of over a dozen people in Veracruz during Duarte’s 2010-2016 administration.<\/p>\n

However, Yunes said Guatemala \u2014 which initially agreed to extradite Duarte only to face the corruption charges \u2014 must still agree to allow him to be tried on the abduction charges.<\/p>\n

Charges have already been brought against about 20 former Veracruz law enforcement officials who allegedly kidnapped and killed 15 innocent civilians.<\/p>\n

Duarte was one of a string of other governors from the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party who were charged in corruption cases.<\/p>\n

They include fugitive former Chihuahua Gov. Cesar Duarte and ex-Gov. Tomas Yarrington of Tamaulipas, who was arrested in Italy.<\/p>\n

Public disgust with the ex-governors is believed to have played a role in their party’s crushing defeat in the July 1 presidential and state elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MEXICO CITY \u2014 The former governor of Mexico’s Gulf coast state of Veracruz pleaded guilty to charges of organized crime …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":183385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}