A publication of the Mexican newspaper El Financiero claims that the former governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte de Ochoa, wanted for corruption in his country, was in a luxury hotel in West San José in recent days.
Duarte is investigated for crimes of organized delinquency, operations with resources of illicit origin and others that will be determined during the process.
The politician, who is on the run, is identified as the alleged culprit of a millionaire embezzlement in the coffers of the Veracruz government. Apparently, he appropriated $26 million and the financial gap in Veracruz now exceeds $386 million.
Weeks ago, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (PGR) requested collaboration from several countries, including Costa Rica, to track the movements of the politician.
According to El Financiero, intelligence authorities placed Duarte in Veracruz on October 13th. Then it was confirmed he was in a colony of Guatemala City last December 21st. However, on December 22nd, the authorities confirmed that the subject had been hiding in a hotel located west of San José for the last couple of days.
The loose immigration controls in Central America, where moving from one country to another poses no problems, have played in his favor: just last week he jumped another frontier, despite being wanted by the Interpol in more than 180 countries…”
said the publication issued on Friday.
Duarte only has one illicit entry to Costa Rica (October 7th, 2010) as confirmed by the General Directorate of Immigration, and he left the country a day later.
According to the site Aristegui News, Miguel Angel Yunes, elected governor of Veracruz, suggested expanding the investigation to Costa Rica for the links with Vicente Benítez, former finance treasurer for Duarte.
The Ministry of Public Security (MSP) announced that they will provide details on the matter today.