Morelos Governor Cuauhtémoc Blanco has accused some 50 past and present politicians and officials, including his predecessor, of belonging to a narco-political network in the small central Mexico state.
Two weeks after a photograph surfaced in which he appears with three alleged narcos, Blanco went to the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) on Monday to denounce a “dirty war” against him and accuse numerous municipal, state and federal politicians of being complicit with organized crime.
Among those he pointed his finger at were former governor Graco Ramírez, ex-Morelos police chief Alberto Capella, former deputy security minister Francisco Viruete and current federal Senator Ángel García Yáñez. Capella and Viruete served in Ramírez’s 2012-18 government.
According to the newspaper Milenio, which obtained copies of documents, photos and other evidence Blanco presented to support his accusations, the governor accused the politicians and officials of having links to criminal groups including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Gurreros Unidos, Comando Tlahuica and Los Rojos.
Alleged leaders of the first three of those organizations appeared in the photo with the current Morelos governor, a former soccer star who represented the national team on over 100 occasions.
Audio evidence in the possession of the Morelos Attorney General’s Office suggests Ramírez and Capella had links to former Los Rojos leader Santiago Mazari Hernández, who was arrested in 2019 and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment on organized crime charges in 2020.
Another alleged member of the narco-political network denounced by Blanco is Esther Yadira Huitrón Vázquez, presumed leader in Morelos of the Guerreros Unidos, whose members allegedly abducted and killed the 43 students who disappeared in Guerrero in 2014.
Known as La Jefa (The Boss), Huitrón is believed to be the partner of Senator García Yáñez.
Blanco reiterated on Monday that he has nothing to hide and doesn’t make deals with criminals.
He said earlier this month that he didn’t know the identity of the alleged narcos with whom he appeared in the photo published by El Sol de México on January 4. The governor said he appears in thousands of photos and couldn’t be expected to ask every person who they are and what they did for a living.
Capella, who also worked as police chief in Tijuana and was Quintana Roo security minister until late 2020, has denied he was complicit with any crime groups and called on Blanco to resign.
In a Twitter post on Monday, he asserted that Morelos – which recorded almost 1,200 homicides last year – is currently mired in a multi-faceted crisis and that the “ineptitude, cowardice, corruption and ignorance” of Blanco is its main cause.
“In light of the evidence of his dialogue with alleged criminals Cuauhtémoc Blanco must resign!!!” Capella wrote.
With reports from Milenio
