Former Veracruz Gov. Javier Duarte just wrote the outline for what could be the next best-selling novel in Mexico that could be titled “Announced Escape.”
Last Oct. 12 he went live on the air in a popular TV station to claim that he was an honest man, that he had not stolen all the billions he was being accused of stealing, that he had not made any alliance with criminal organizations, and that he had had nothing to do with the assassination of 19 journalists in the state he governed since he started his mandate back in 2012.
And Duarte said he was not escaping anywhere because, he told interviewer Carlos Loret of Televisa, “I’m staying in Veracruz, this is not about running away, and it’s about showing my face and confronting this situation.”
Then, the entire circus tent he had erected came crumbling down last Wednesday Oct. 19 when the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) issued a warrant for his arrest for the embezzlement of those missing billions of pesos and his participation in a criminal gang that ran from the state’s government office in Veracruz capital city Xalapa.
No sooner was the warrant out than Duarte vanished, disappeared and using his magic powers became The Invisible Man.
This action immediately sparked yet another onslaught of outrage against President Enrique Peña Nieto, who in 2013 had touted Duarte as “the renewal of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)” that President Peña is leader of.
Worse still, everyone knew he was preparing his naughty escapade somewhere and the PGR as well as President Peña were informed about it yet did nothing to stop it.
In defense of the President, many a Mexican still lives in the old days when a president had control over state governors. With the advent of democracy — extremely welcome — presidents have lost that power and even if they know that a governor is robbing his state’s treasury there’s not much they can do about it as states now have their own independence, and are truly part of the republic.
The days of a dictatorial presidency are over and the problem is that many a governor is taking advantage of it to pillage and plunder the people who voted in a clean and free election to take him to power.
Just in recent months we’ve seen three days of governors brought to trial: Rodrigo Medina of Nuevo León, Guillermo Padrés of Sonora and of course, Duarte.
This is not to say that these former governors are the only suspects of wrongdoing while in their administration. Indeed the list is a lot longer and the great majority of them are enjoying their wealth in freedom.
Just to give you an idea of the treasury ransacking Duarte did, when he arrived in power in 2012 the state had a debt of approximately 12 billion pesos ($647,491): Now that his administration is being audited, its debt thus far until last Friday was placed by accountants at 46 billion pesos with no visible or accountable infrastructure works to justify the 34 billion increase. And whatever else piles up next week.
Many a pundit considers that President Peña Nieto could somehow spike his own low popularity ebb by going against Duarte, a member of his own PRI.
Again, those who demand this want to give the President dictatorial powers and the power to proceed against Duarte now in his turf — a President has different chores than running around chasing alleged crooks — but it is that of the PGR.
Attorney General Arely Gómez says they are looking for Duarte and nine more associates – two women have already been arrested – and PGR agents are looking for the missing Duarte. “This is one of the most relevant cases now in our hands, with the accusatory system,” Gómez said Friday.
But in the end political pundits are having a hearty laugh because since last Oct. 12 just when Duarte announced he was not running away everyone knew he was paving the way for the now successful getaway stunt he pulled right in front of PGR agents.
Everyone is claiming now that he has no place to hide at and that there is no record that he may have travelled to another country.
The cynical answer to the question of “where is Duarte” is that he can hide, but he can’t run. Well, the news is, he already ran, perhaps far away while agents look for him in all the wrong places, where they ain’t gonna find him.
Exactly the same way they can’t find Guillermo Padrés and former Tamaulipas Gov. Tomás Yarrington.
Now you see them, now you don’t.