Big Birthday Bash for Mayor Who 'Only Stole a Little' Mexico Daily News
go to original March 1, 2015

Last year's YouTube video of a speech by Hilario Ramirez Villanueva sparked a national outcry against corruption. (InfoMX NOTICIAS)

The mayor who said he only stole a little bit of public money had a party in San Blas, Nayarit, yesterday and everyone was invited.

Hilario Ramírez Villanueva, also known as “Layín,” and known as well as a person with a sense of humor, admitted last year to dipping into the public treasury while in office, and then went on to win re-election. Yesterday, he celebrated his 44th birthday with a big bash in the community of Huaristemba.

Ramírez said in interviews this past week that he expected at least 40,000 people to turn up, for “un ruidito, un traguito y un taquito,” — a little noise, a little drink and a little taco. He ordered trailer-loads of beer — 50,000 cartons — and 50 cattle for birria, a beef stew.

Ramírez was mayor of San Blas, a municipality of some 40,000 people located 160 kilometers north of Puerto Vallarta, from 2008 until 2011. Political opponents accused him of robbing as much as 150 million pesos during that time.

The charge drew a “confession” from the ex-mayor while on the campaign trail last June: “I only stole a little bit!”

“They say I robbed a lot of money. Yes, I robbed some money, but just a little, because there wasn’t any . . . yes, I stole from the municipality, but a little, because it’s very poor. I gave (the treasury) a shave, nothing more than a little shave, because what I stole with this hand,” he said, raising his right arm, “I gave to the poor with this hand (raising his left).”

The admission made Ramírez famous internationally, and a month after he made it he won re-election. He attributed his win to the voters having understood that his remarks were in jest.

Read the rest at Mexico News Daily.