Fugitive Ex-Governor Duarte Left the Country to 'Attend to Various Issues' teleSUR
go to original December 19, 2016

Photograph of the fugitive former Veracruz Governor Javier Duarte, along with a "wanted" poster that locals plastered around the state (EFE/teleSUR)

A former governor of a Mexican state whose whereabouts have been unknown since he stepped down two months ago over corruption charges had left the country by early November, local media said on Monday.

Javier Duarte, former governor of Veracruz, left the county to "attend to various issues," according to a statement by his lawyer in a court document dated Nov. 4, Mexican daily Reforma said. The newspaper did not say what country he had gone to.

In a case that has embarrassed the country's ruling party, Duarte resigned in mid-October, denying any wrongdoing, in order to face charges of embezzlement, money laundering and organized crime. Prosecutors say Duarte embezzled or misspent as much as US$2 billion since he took office nearly six years ago.

Two weeks before that, Duarte was kicked out of President Enrique Peña Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Veracruz, an oil-rich state on the Gulf of Mexico, saw a spike in gang-related crime and human rights abuses during Duarte's term.

At least 18 journalists were murdered in Veracruz on Duarte's watch alone, combined with a litany of human rights abuses, disappearances, femicides and discoveries of mass graves.

See the original at teleSUR

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