Ex-Gov of Chihuahua Cesar Duarte: Found with 50 More Luxury Properties in the US and Mexico

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Zeta / Infobae

                              The luxurious life that César Duarte gave himself seems unreal. 
In a press release from the Chihuahua Social Communication area, Javier Corral Jurado announced that 50 new properties acquired by the former president in the US were identified, which are distributed in Texas, New Mexico and Florida.

Governor Corral's persecution of his predecessor has led to the seizure of several ranches and farms, among other types of properties, in which dozens of exotic animals such as bison, llamas and wild boars were found, as well as heads of cattle from New Zealand, allegedly they were acquired through a government livestock support program he titled.

Buffalos, cattle and thousands of hectares: this was the unprecedented ranches of César Duarte  confiscated by the Mexican government.  Javier Corral, current Governor of Chihuahua, who indicated that they will seek to return the money from the properties in the form of works and services for the citizens of the state.

César Duarte , the  former governor of Chihuahua who was detained on July 8 in Florida, US of A states that  the Mexican authorities have confiscated from him at least 50 properties , among which are large ranches, where, in addition to exotic animals, more of 400 cattle allegedly illegally obtained.

Four of the ranches seized by the Chihuahua government, taken together, have an area greater than 30,000 hectares . Collectible animals were found in them , such as 30 bison , five llamas , herds of wild boars , in addition to 450 cattle that came from New Zealand .

In 2018, the government of the entity mentioned that the heads of cattle corresponded to those acquired for the Social Support Program for the Repopulation of Hato Ganadero for Small Cattle Ranchers in Chihuahua , which was implemented in the Duarte administration, without However, the results never reached their beneficiaries .

                      This is how César Duarte's ranches were (Photo: Twitter @ ComSocChih)

Also, on the property were found an aviary , stables , six presones, which are machines for excavation work, in addition to off-road cars . The engine and tail rotor of the Bell 429 helicopter , in which Duarte had an accident in August 2015, was even located .

It was detailed that the four properties, which are located in the municipality of La Balleza, south of Chihuahua, and were purchased directly by César Horacio Duarte Jáquez during his administration in the entity, which covered the years of 2010 to 2016 .

The properties were confiscated by the State Attorney General's Office in order to be able to carry out the necessary investigative measures , such as expertise in criminal matters, topography and valuation

             Animals such as buffaloes and llamas, among others, were found on the properties.

This July 16, the Chihuahua prosecutor, César Peniche Espejel, disclosed the progress of the seized properties and mentioned that some are under the figure of underwriting and others through the Amparo process. Faced with this situation, he explained, " processes are beginning to formally dispossess this person of these assets and enter them into the state's patrimony ."

According to information from the Prosecutor's Office, more than 30 million pesos have also been recovered , "which have already been entered into the treasury thanks to Operation Justice for Chihuahua ." At the moment, there are investigation folders that are waiting for a turn, arrest warrants to be filled , as well as others that are going to be requested in court.

Javier Corral, current president in the entity, indicated that among the secured ranches are El Saucito, of 4,300 hectares , and that of Santa Rita , whose extension is about 29,000 hectares , "which is a lot of land because it exceeds the legal basis of the entire city of Chihuahua ”, he specified during the virtual conference.

          Altogether, the seized ranches would have an extension greater than 30,000 hectares.

The governor assured that his purpose is to return the seized by means of the figures of extinction of domain and repair of the damages . In addition, it would seek to return it to citizens in the form of works and services, such as "schools, parks, sports fields or clinics."

The entity's legal adviser, Jorge Espinoza Cortés, stressed that the sale of the cattle that were seized and the various properties are already in process . "In these cases, the Domain Extinction Law allows the sale of goods to be auctioned in advance," he said.

Duarte, who had been a fugitive from justice for more than three years , is accused of the crimes of embezzlement and illicit enrichment , determined in the Criminal Code of the State of Chihuahua. However, there are at least 30 detainees in the investigations of the case among secretaries , undersecretaries , private directors, deputies and teachers, among others.

The arrest of César Duarte managed to revive what is known as "Operation Safiro" , in which 250 million pesos would have been diverted through alleged electoral campaigns in various states of the Republic.

At the end of his government, Duarte Jáquez left a public debt of 48,000 million pesos , affecting the local treasury for 6,000 million pesos , in addition to the case opened for diversion of state resources for electoral purposes to favor the party to which he was affiliated ( PRI ) during 2015.

On July 10, Duarte appeared for the first time before a Federal Court in the United States . According to the Millennium portal , in the hearing that lasted just 10 minutes, the man was only informed of the extradition order against him for an alleged deviation of more than 96 million pesos , from June 2011 to November 2014.

In a virtual hearing, that took place at Miami’s South District Judge, Duarte had a cellphone in which he heard the translation of what the judge was telling him. The former governor was handcuffed and was wearing a beige and gray uniform; he was not wearing a mask.

The judge read the charges against him, described the crimes, and told him there is a warrant to take him to Mexico. César Duarte was denied parole at his first U.S. hearing.

In addition, the federal judge who conducted the hearing denied him the opportunity to continue his judicial process in freedom . The short duration of the initial process was due to the request of his lawyers to extend it in order to prepare a better defense .

Duarte, however,  promoted an amparo to prevent the Mexican government from requesting the United States to extradite him. In the demand for guarantees, he also claimed the arrest warrant issued against him and the request for provisional arrest for international extradition purposes was mishandled.

According to the newspapers Milenio and El Universal, the legal recourse was filed in the Fourth District Court of Amparo in Criminal Matters based in Mexico City, who is presided over by  Judge María Dolores Núñez Solorio. So far, all that is known is that the judge has not yet decided whether to admit the former governor's demand.

When Enrique Peña Nieto became the banner of the “new PRI” to regain federal executive power in 2006, he did not operate alone. He was accompanied by a whole litter of young and dynamic new politicians who would represent an avant-garde way of making government. César Duarte Jáquez was one of them.

Since he took office to lead Chihuahua (2010-2016), he became enraptured with power and together with that PRI clan, he turned corruption into a rhythm that everyone knew how to dance. When the music of the hegemonic power of “peñismo” was muted, the track was left alone, until on July 8, 2020, in Florida, United States, the justice system turned off the stage lights.

Long gone are the times when the governor was captured by media cameras performing dances with exaggerated movements to the sound of the Chihuahuan Group Conjunto Primavera, or the popular rhythms of the late Juan Gabriel, of whom he boasted an admiration and friendship.

The former governor of the largest state in the country -territorially speaking- was arrested after three years of being on the verge mata to avoid answering about twenty charges ranging from aggravated embezzlement, illicit enrichment, electoral embezzlement, damage to the State's assets , among others. At the moment there is a loss to the treasury for 1.2 billion pesos, in addition to the inexplicable indebtedness of almost 50 billion pesos and many other signs.

Approximately 250 million pesos - it is presumed - ended up in the coffers of his party, in 2015, with part of a gear for financing electoral campaigns identified as Operation Zafiro, in which governments such as the State of Mexico, Sonora, and Durango participated. Morelos, among others. This resource was triangulated through shell companies and culminated in the coffers of the PRI, the Institutional Revolutionary Party when it was led at the national level by Manlio Fabio Beltrones, now vanished from the Mexican political sphere.

The celebration in various public squares of the northern State for the arrest of Duarte Jáquez, was immediate. Caravans of vehicles, songs and even meetings in which roast meat was prepared, some of the postcards that portrayed local media in the streets of Chihuahua, where the citizens paused the  Covid pandemic to celebrate the first step to justice for which they have awaited for so long.

But nobody is happier with this capture than his political rival, Governor Javier Corral Jurado, who as an opposition was a harsh critic of the PRI. When he assumed power in 2016, he demonstrated that the persecution against Duarte would not be just in speech and started a machinery to investigate each peso and each invoice.

"(With the arrest of Duarte) A long impunity ends that doubly wronged us Chihuahuans who were the object of one of the greatest looting, robberies that have been carried out in the history of Chihuahua and Mexico," he commented during a event in Parral, Chihuahua.

Duarte's arrest occurred when the country's attention was focused on the meeting of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador with his American counterpart Donald Trump to talk about the new Free Trade Agreement of Canada, the United States and Mexico. Unlike the Enrique Peña Nieto government, in which Corral Jurado faced great obstacles, in the current one, binational barriers were freed to reach one of the last links of the “new PRI”,  from which it was expelled in 2019 by the accusations of corruption.

Duarte Jáquez joins the members of that PRI era detained for acts of corruption, such as Javier Duarte, governor of Veracruz, sentenced to nine years in prison for crimes related to corruption; Roberto Borge, from Quintana Roo; Tomás Yarrington, from Tamaulipas; Jesús Reyna, from Michoacán, accused of links to drug trafficking - today free -; Humberto Moreira, from Coahuila -also free-; Eugenio Hernández, from Tamaulipas; in addition to characters such as Emilio Lozoya, former director of Petróleos Mexicanos , extradited to Mexico, from Spain.

Javier Corral Jurado, Governor of Chihuahua, ( photo above) during the presentation of the Justice Reparation Fund for Chihuahua, where it was reported that there will be 3 billion pesos which come from the actions in combat to the political corruption of the state administration, the existence of nineteen local arrest warrants and a federal one against ex-president César Duarte Jáquez, who is allegedly accused of the deviation of 1,550 million pesos, was also detailed.

Hours after the arrest of César Duarte Jáquez, the PAN artist Javier Corral Jurado issued a message through social networks, to formally announce the arrest and about the judicial process that remains against his predecessor, whom he referred to as a man who “built a political corruption ” in the northern entity.

"In his tenure, he amassed a multimillion-dollar fortune, acquired farms, exotic cattle, all beyond his economic possibilities," was one of the first sentences he made reference to in the video, where he recalled the indebtedness of 50 billion pesos. Gov Corral who inherited his administration, committing to future generations.

Corral Jurado also made reference to the corrupting power of Duarte, whom he pointed out of handing over money from the treasury to businessmen, opposition political leaders, opinion leaders, columnists, political actors and the media, with the aim of covering the systematic embezzlement of his government.

After leaving office, Duarte sought a humanitarian visa in the United States - where several luxury properties were identified - through the dual nationality of his children, but was denied, so on November 28, 2016, he entered the neighboring country of the US with a tourist visa through Newark Airport, New Jersey.

In March 2018 an Interpol red token was issued to search for him worldwide. In May of the same year, his tourist visa expired and his legal situation was complicated, so he began to move in various cities in Texas and New Mexico, managing to evade the action of justice during that time.

As time passed for Duarte, a refugee in the United States, the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office filed cases against several of his former officials, managing to arrest some of them.

During the interview conducted by ZETA in January 2018, entitled "'The Peña Nieto, the most corrupt government: "Javier Corral, Governor of Chihuahua", the current president of Chihuahua directly accused the government of the then President of Mexico and the secretary of Finance - later chancellor - Luis Videgaray Caso, to protect Duarte in order to avoid his extradition.

Likewise, the then Peñista government went to great lengths to remove the investigation folders from the Chihuahuan prosecutor's office, which generated great concern at the possibility that the case would be filed or dismissed.

In that interview, Corral also commented that federal officials had confessed to him concern about the progress of the investigation against César Duarte, since he began to change federal officials. Corral Jurado said that he would go to the last consequences, regardless of whether the destination is Manlio Fabio Beltrones or Videgaray Caso. They could include Peña Nieto himself, since in one of the hearings held against former César Duarte officials, in January 2019, former Chihuahuan Education Secretary Ricardo Yáñez Herrera involved Juan José Chimal, the former President's brother-in-law, in the diversion of 23 million pesos from the treasury of that entity, through the company Explocean, S de RL de CV , of which - he assured - he was director of Public Relations.

The company charged more than 23 million pesos for educational advisory concepts and was hired by the former Baja California Governor Francisco Vega de Lamadrid for the same concept in 2015.

     Former Governor of Baja California State and his wife, after the search of one of their houses

To reach this conclusion, the government of Chihuahua hired a law firm in the neighboring country, which has also started the embargo procedure.

"Having originally provided a listing of about ten real properties that were identified as the property of the former governor, the firm has identified around 50 properties in the United States in New Mexico, Texas and Florida, including one of the recent locations that they had done it was precisely this business, this workshop called Chávez , (where he was detained), which had already been identified by the firm, ” reads the press release, adding that now the most important challenge is to present: Duarte before the courts so that justice is done.

To these new properties are added assets already detected in Mexico, through names and himself, the former governor acquired at least twenty properties during his tenure, according to Millennium reported in its digital edition, further specifying that it was made of approximately 40 thousand hectares of real estate in various parts of Mexico and the American Union, in accordance with the sayings of Javier Corral Jurado.

Corral's persecution of his predecessor has led to the seizure of several ranches and farms, among other types of properties, in which dozens of exotic animals such as bison, llamas and wild boars were found, as well as heads of cattle from New Zealand, allegedly they were acquired through a government livestock support program he titled.