New Governor in Mexico's Guerrero State Allegedly Had Role in 2001 Kidnapping Tim Johnson - McClatchyDC
go to original November 6, 2014

Rogelio Martínez Ortega takes office as the new Acting Governor of the State of Guerrero, in the city of Chilpancingo, Mexico on Oct. 26, 2014. (Alejandrino Gonzalez/AP)

MEXICO CITY — Few dispute that the newly installed governor of Mexico’s Guerrero state has a radical past. The question is, just how radical?

Supporters of Gov. Rogelio Ortega Martinez, who took office last week amid a deepening crisis over the disappearance of 43 students from a rural teachers college six weeks ago, say the 59-year-old sociologist’s roots in the radical left might be just what’s needed to quell insurgent fervor in a state that’s been the cradle of numerous revolutionary movements.

But a criminal complaint lodged against Ortega charges that his radicalism went beyond politics to include kidnapping and extortion, all in cooperation with the hemisphere’s oldest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC in its Spanish initials. If proved true, the allegations would underscore another reality in Mexico: Impunity for past crimes among politicians helps create a culture of little respect for the law.

The complaint links the new governor to a kidnapping in Guerrero in 2001 and dealings with the FARC, which the United States and many European nations consider a terrorist organization.

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