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Saturday, August 6, 2016

Veracruz Top Cop resigns after Texas properties worth millions discovered

Posted by DD Republished from  the Guardian with some commentary by me.

Arturo Bermúdez Zurita, public security secretary of Veracruz, and his wife purchased five properties with a combined value of $2.4 million dollars despite $3,200 monthly salary.  

in Mexico City


 Zurita reviewing his State Police
A senior Mexican police official has been forced to resign after investigative journalists revealed that he and his wife had built up a property empire incompatible with his humble public-sector salary.

Arturo Bermúdez Zurita, the public security secretary of the violence-wracked state of Veracruz, stood down on Thursday after reports emerged that he and his wife had purchased a string of properties in Texas worth millions of dollars.

His resignation is a rarity in a country where public officials often accumulate fabulous personal wealth, yet accusations of wrongdoing rarely bring serious consequences.

But analysts say that Bermúdez’s fate may have less to do with serious attempts to tackle Mexico’s entrenched corruption than with shifting political winds following recent regional elections in which the ruling Institutional Revolutionary party (PRI) lost power in Veracruz and six other states.

Bermúdez resigned after the online news outlet Aristegui Noticias revealed that he and his wife had purchased five properties in suburban Houston with a combined value of $2.4m – even though he made a mere 59,500 pesos a month ($3,200), according to government transparency records.

Announcing his resignation on Twitter, Bermúdez denied any wrongdoing, saying he had always acted within the law. The Veracruz government issued a statement, saying Bermúdez was resigning to “clarify the origin of his personal patrimony and defend himself”.

The revelations mark yet another scandal for the outgoing state governor, Javier Duarte, who leaves office in December after a six-year term tarnished by spiraling violence, financial mismanagement and the murders of 19 journalists.

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DD:   For a long time, Veracruz has had “bad guys” as governors, with some having even been accused of being involved with drug trafficking, or making deals with millionaires, using the state's wealth. But there has never been anyone like Javier Duarte.

 Superior Auditor of the Federation (ASF), recently announced that Javier Duarte's Government had failed to substantiate what 35 billion pesos [US$1.9 billion] had been spent on.

From 2011 until the present day, 17 journalists have been killed, all of whom were critical of his government.

Under Javier Duarte’s government reports of women who have been disappeared have increased by 5000%. According to figures provided by the Attorney General, between 2006 and 2010 there were 32 registered cases, between 2011 and 2015 this increased to 1,647 allegations. The worst year recorded was 2014, in which 597 women were reported as missing.

According to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), between December 2010 and August of last year, there were 3,136 murders in Veracruz. The Proceso correspondent in Veracruz, Noé Zavaleta, has recorded 13 hidden cemeteries, while out of the 950 disappearances reported to the Attorney General, it considers 155 of them to have been forced [i.e., at the hands of government agents]. From 2012 until 2015, 186 local and state police officers were investigated by the Deputy Prosecutor for Organized Crime Investigation (SEIDO) for alleged links to organized crime.

 State congresses in of Veracruz and Quintana Roo have in recent weeks passed laws or adjusted existing ones that they say will help combat corruption.  Federal Deputy Attorney General Salvador Sandoval said Monday that the state laws contravene a national anti-corruption system on the basis  that the new laws allow the outgoing Governors to appoint their own anti-corruption prosecutors. Critics have said the changes are intended to protect their outgoing governors from prosecution.   

PGR has filed a brief with the Supreme Court asking that that portion of the state anti-corruption law that allows the outgoing Governor to appoint the state anti-corruption prosecutors be voided.

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Frustration with Duarte and other powerful state governors led to an electoral rout for the PRI in June’s regional elections, which is now under pressure to show it is cracking down on corruption, analysts say.

“The PRI on the national level needs to vindicate itself and will likely do so by throwing someone in prison,” said Miguel Ángel Díaz, founder of the Veracruz publication Plumas Libres. “With scandal after scandal and the murders of so many journalists, Veracruz is an ideal place for scapegoating.”

Under Duarte, Veracruz became one of the country’s most violent states, and state police officials were often implicated in murders and forced disappearances.

“During these five years, it was a period of terror and silence,” Díaz said. “The police were kidnapping and extorting and disappearing people. Few media outlets dared to publish anything and those that did publish did so with fear.”

The incoming governor, Miguel Ángel Yunes, won office on an agenda of cleaning up Veracruz. But he was embarrassed earlier this year by a leaked recording in which he can be heard hashing out details of bidding for a $58m New York apartment. Yunes says he never purchased the property.

Analysts say allegations of widespread corruption in state governments are the consequence of political decentralisation over the past 20 years. Over that time, governors – who previously served at the president’s pleasure – gained autonomy and received increased federal funds to spend with little oversight.

According to Federico Estévez, a political science professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, corruption by governors depended on political backing from the national government. “Now, the money is sent to them automatically and there are no countervailing powers,” he said.

29 comments:

  1. I make as much legit cash as him in canada. And I still can't get close to buying that much properties!!! Take all his shit. Hold it until he can prove he earned it legit. And if not they lose it. To hell with him and his wife!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. --The US will take it, but they ain't giving nothin' to mexico, when the US got the zetas ranchos y caballos, they did not give mexico one ball of horse shit, but BB got chivis and Havana pura lusting after el Pancho Colorado Cessa in court no less...
      😍 love youses chivis and havanna

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    2. And why should they give back blood money. You think they should give it back to double the blood money? !@#$%^&*(!@#$%^<$$$$$>

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  2. Ridiculous. I live in the US and struggle to get the 30% deposit for a home, HOW DOES HE DO IT???

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    Replies
    1. Threatened all who "had been collaborating with los setas", sponsored setas, cjng, golfas, kidnapping of young women, white slavery, oil thefts, stealing from the budget, kickbacks, PRIVATE SECURITY CORPORATIONS...deals with professional kidnappers, money laundering...he studied it in spain, like el Bertie Boy moreiro and chief of polesia nazional enrique francisco galindo ceballos, "la quica", i mean "el quike" a seta from the start like his uncle, mafioso, detective, novelista, Julio Ceballos and miguel angel osorio chong...how name people you have to kidnap to accumulate 2.5 million dollars?

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  3. Great. Does that mean he gets to retire now and move over here to Texas?

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    Replies
    1. Genarco garcia luna, SSP OF ALL MEXICO, after about 30 years of living off "poolice work" working kidnapping for ransom, torture killing and raping of even other police officers, and constantly purging the corporations to install in replacements that really know how to be the most bald faced of the corrupt police officers like "veracruz top cop" he is a most favored new millionaire son of the US, a well protected businessman there...

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  4. DD is there no forfeiture or seizure of assets down there when a crook is caught ? The united states may be where these fuckers want to own property but it aint smart for them . We will take their shit and sell it on the auction block . If the bidder is dirty we will take it back from him . We want them to reinvest that drug money up here . Put your dope money in the good old USA it will be well watched . LOL

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  5. Im pretty sure he sells oranges.

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  6. It's open season on this guy. He's a nobody now.

    I bet he'll go Golfing.

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  7. It would behoove the governments of Mexico and the U.S. to begin searching for bank accounts under the names of anyone related to this crooked bastard. They should also seek safe deposit boxes where he and the wife can easily hide negotiable financial instruments, cash, gold bars and jewelry. These two need to be stripped of the U.S. property and any other items that exceed their capacity to buy legally on a salary of $3200 a month.
    The PRI (Puros Ratones Indiscretos) should make Duarte their poster child for corrupt officials serving prison time. Even Mini Me, Peña Nieto's appointed director of the federal anti-corruption office, should be able to prove Duarte stole over a billion dollars of the money sent to Veracruz by their federal government.

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  8. That's amazing. Pathetic government yet again

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  9. Wuuuh, that Twat Cap, with plenty room for the death head, where have i seen it?

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  10. You can bet that in Veracruz as well as the rest of Mexico the amount of reported deaths pales in comparison to how many have really died. They found 13 hidden cemeteries. So many areas to hide cemeteries in Mexico. They could not possibly come even close to finding them all. Some people lose family members and cannot even report it for fear of losing the entire family tree. I just drive from Chihuahua to Santiago Papasquiaro on highway 45, cut over through Santa Maria Del Oro and then to Santiago. Then the next day drove to Cuatro Cienegas. A nice vacation with a different and extremely beautiful route. No toll booths on the route to Santiago either. Every pueblo we stopped on for food or had a question on the way to Santiago, we did not ask about safety, but were told to not stop on the road for any reason, or drive it at night. What a shame in a country that has incredible beauty. Everywhere was trashed except where the Mennonites lived. They kept there houses, farms and roads extremely clean and spotless. There were born and raised in Mexico too. Just proves that you can make money as a group of people in Mexico without resorting to violence, drugs and corruption. Sorry of anyone is offended by this, but the truth is the truth.

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  11. Let 'em dirty bastards come to Tejas, and they will be hung by a rope right after receiving a fair trial.

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    Replies
    1. They are already in Texas, and a lot of them. If you think the cartels and corruption isn't in America you are naive.

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  12. Yo por eso digo y sigo diciendo que arriba la Revolucion jijos del Cocho

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  13. he should be in jail

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  14. I live in The Woodlands and can tell you this guy is not the only one with local investments. Google "Los Porkys rape The Woodlands" to find information on other Veracruz politicos/narcos in the area. Over the past several years the area has seen rapid increase of very wealthy families moving in. Many appear to be very legitimate business types relocating their families to a safer place. Others "feel" very shady and flambouyant. I overhear their conversations in a local coffee shop. Some appear to be very legitimate normal family or business discussions. Others appear less so. The cars being driven include numerous Bentleys, AMGs, high end Italian sports cars etc. Properties purchased include a local prep school, a high end gym, restaurants etc...

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    Replies
    1. Some pretty corrupt bullshit on both sides!

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    2. Pero ahi andan de calientes.

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  15. So he just retired? Smh

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  16. That first picture really irritates me.

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    Replies
    1. Ja_ck . Are you a sexist or something ? I would have no objections to you touching me that way .

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  17. This thug should be locked up the U.S. will seize his homes.

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    Replies
    1. La Aristegui is really looking for una buena chinga, she will really be making big bunches of money as a reporter, I hope she buys televisa and gets to piss on it live!!!

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    2. Aristegui will b murdered. - El Sol Perdido

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    3. ESP-She's too big.It would be like murdering Dr.Mireles.It would open up a HUGE can of worms but on the other hand who would be investigating?The US?I doubt it.Mexicans are very conscious of class:whos big and whos not.Why do you never see a big guy go down?

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  18. So if they seized property, can they also start looking into bank accounts in different countries, and other properties as well, and can they also strip him and his wife of his passport to the US?

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