Chiapas: Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía, ex-governor, is detained

Pablo Salazar detained in El Amate @ Milenio

Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía, ex-governor of Chiapas (2000-2006), was detained by agents of the Federal Police (PF) on Tuesday 7 June in the international airport of Cancún, Quintana Roo, just as he was about to board a flight to Mexico City. He was transferred to the El Amate prison (which he himself constructed in 2005) in the municipality of Cintalapa, Chiapas.

The State Attorney General’s Office of Chiapas has declared that the capture of Pablo Salazar was the result of an arrest-order that followed investigations that have been ongoing for several years on the charges of x, inappropriate exercise of public authority, abuse of public function, abuse of authority, and criminal association. In a communique, the Office stressed that “the Public Ministry presented evidence that shows that Pablo Salazar, together with several public servants in his administrations, deviated 104 million pesos from the state.” Lastly, it emphasized that for these crimes the ex-governor could face a 20-year sentence. Equally, several functionaries of the administration of Pablo Salazar find themselves imprisoned, accused of the deviation of resources destined for reconstruction after Hurricane Stan (2005).

Raciel López Salazar, a district attorney from Chiapas, denied that the arrest represented political revenge on the part of present governor Juan Sabines, given the evident differences between him and his predecessor. Some days ago, Salazar Mendiguchía denounced the Chiapas State Attorney General’s Office before the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR), regarding the presumed robbery of various documents from his home in Chiapas.

Pablo Salazar began a hunger stirke on Wednesday 8 June to protest the charges, reported his lawyer, Ilan Katz, who found the detention an abuse of his client’s rights. “Pablo is there for something that has nothing to do with Hurricane Stan or reconstruction,” said his lawyer, who attributed the situation to “political ends.”

On 14 June, he was sentenced to imprisonment.

For more information (in Spanish):

Pablo Salazar, detenido y encarcelado en El Amate, La Jornada, 8 June 2011

Detienen en Cancún al exgobernador Pablo Salazar, Proceso.com.mx, 9 June 2011

Preocupa a PRD detención de Pablo Salazar, EL Universal, 8 June 2011

Pablo Salazar no alcanza fianza; MP solicitará 20 años de prisión, Milenio, 9 June 2011

Sabines frena a Salazar, La Jornada, 8 June 2011

Detención de Pablo Salazar, golpe a la impunidad política, Cuarto Poder, 8 June 2011

Justicia contra Pablo Salazar no es un caso especial, Cuarto Poder, 8 June 2011

Celebran justicia divina vs. Salazar, Cuarto Poder, 9 June 2011

Preso, Pablo Salazar inicia huelga de hambre; rechaza acusaciones, Periódico Digital, 8 June 2011

Dictan auto de formal prisión a Pablo Salazar por desvío de 104 mdp, La Jornada, 14 June 2011