He was the first Mexican governor to face charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, both in Mexico and in the United States, for which he was sentenced to 22 years.
The former Governor of Quintana Roo Mario Villanueva Madrid , arrested in 2001 and sentenced to 22 years in prison for the crime of links with organized crime, will go to house arrest, after the Second Unitary Court based in Toluca granted him this benefit. .
On social networks, the former governor of Quintana Roo announced shortly before midnight that he was "going home" , following an agreement by the Federal Court that ordered the transfer to his home.
The news was announced through a call by the legal adviser to the Presidency of the Republic, Julio Scherer, months after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador promised to release him , during one of his visits to Cancún.
"Imagine what I feel after 21 years and almost three months without stepping on my home, with 19 years in prison, when I am innocent of what I have been accused of ," said Villanueva Madrid.
Likewise, he referred that the Congress of Quintana Roo proved his innocence after in August 2019, an exhortation was issued from the State Legislative to the President of the Republic to grant him a pardon, based on an opinion prepared by the previous legislature.
In the period of elaboration of the opinion, in which it was concluded that he was imprisoned for a “political revenge” , his son, Mario Villanueva Tenorio , served as an independent deputy .
In his message on social networks, the former governor pointed out that now he will continue to search for his freedom , which are being managed by public defenders led by Carlos Gustavo Cruz Miranda, with the Legal Department of the Presidency of the Republic and the Secretary of the Interior.
Villanueva Madrid was the first Mexican governor to face charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, both in Mexico and in the United States.
Mario Villanueva Madrid was born in Chetumal in 1948, but did his professional studies in Chihuahua, where he graduated as an Agronomist and graduated in Law . After returning to Quintana Roo he was municipal president of Benito Juárez in 1990 .
In 1993 he was elected Governor of Quintana Roo , a year after the Juárez Cartel, led by Amado Carrillo Fuentes , established operations in that state.
Emanating from the ranks of the PRI , he was governor from April 1993 to March 1999 , the date on which he submitted his resignation against the criminal proceedings that had been announced against him.
In 1999 his term as governor ended . At the end of his term, the United States authorities linked him to drug trafficking and he remained a fugitive from March 27, 1999 to May 24, 2001 , when he was captured in Cancún, Quintana Roo.
According to United States authorities , the former PRI governor would receive up to $ 500,000 for each shipment that the Amado Carrillo Fuentes cartel sent to the entity.
After his capture, Mario Villanueva was held in the Altiplano prison , from where he was released and captured again. In 2010, he was extradited to a prison in Kentucky, United States , where he admitted to laundering money for drug trafficking.
He was accused of taking advantage of the position to provide protection to the Juárez Cartel, then headed by the late Amado Carrillo Fuentes, El Señor de los Cielos.
Villanueva was transferred from the clinic where he is hospitalized in Chetumal to his home address.
The former governor of Quintana Roo Mario Villanueva Madrid left the Campestre clinic at 4:40 p.m. on Wednesday after having obtained temporary house arrest. He was escorted by a National Guard patrol and elements of the federal police.
Villanueva Madrid was transferred in a private vehicle and handcuffed to the Andara subdivision, where his wife Isabel Tenorio and children currently live, who received him with applause along with a dozen people, friends and family. The ambulance of the Professional Services in Respiratory Therapy was unnecessary, which remained outside the clinic for several hours.
The transfer obeyed the judicial order of the fifth unitary court of the second circuit, which modified the definitive suspension of the amparo trial 54/2019 and thus granted Villanueva Madrid house arrest, who is serving a 22-year sentence for crimes against health and money laundering. The benefit is temporary and will end when his life is not at risk of getting Covid-19.
Villanueva Madrid "El Chueco" was captured in 2001 and in 2010 he was the first former governor to be extradited to the United States authorities for trial for drug trafficking and criminal association. In January 2017, he was repatriated to Mexico and imprisoned in a federal prison in the municipality of Villa de Ayala, Morelos, to serve that prison sentence.
According to the ruling of Judge Rafael Remes Ojeda, head of the fifth court, the former president would have to be transferred from the Clinica Campestre, in Chetumal, to Calle Lobeira, lot number seven, block 58, Andara Club Residencial subdivision, property owned of his wife and which was purchased by Villanueva Madrid.
Likewise, the magistrate ordered that he is prohibited from leaving the country. The complainant may only leave said property, without prior authorization from this court, in case of emergency, which requires its transfer to clinical or hospital facilities, for serious medical reasons, of which immediate notice must be given to this constitutional control body .
Quintero Meras
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