Pubdate: Wed, 15 Jun 2011 Source: Wall Street Journal (US) Copyright: 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Contact: http://www.wsj.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487 Author: Jose de Cordoba CONTROVERSIAL MEXICAN POLITICIAN FREED ON WEAPONS CHARGES MEXICO CITY-A federal judge dropped weapons charges against a controversial opposition politician and gambling mogul Tuesday and then a state judge refused to hold him on a murder investigation, dealing an embarrassing one-two punch to Mexico's government. "Jorge Hank is free and at home," the politician's lawyer, Fernando Benitez, said. Mr. Hank, the former mayor of Tijuana, was detained June 4 by Mexican soldiers who said they found an illegal arsenal of 88 weapons, including automatic rifles at his compound in Tijuana. Mr. Hank is a pillar of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI, and his arrest coming less than a month before elections in the key State of Mexico, where the PRI holds a wide lead, was seen by PRI politicians and some political analysts as being politically motivated. Since Mr. Hank's arrest, officials of President Felipe Calderon's government and his center-right National Action Party said Mr. Hank's arrest showed the government would not stand for "impunity." The attorney general's office said it would appeal the judge's ruling dismissing the arms charges and freeing Mr. Hank and 10 of his employees who had been held along with him. A spokesman for the presidency declined to comment. After the arms charges were dropped on Tuesday, Mr. Hank was immediately seized by state police who held him under house arrest for investigation on an alleged and unrelated murder in Tijuana, his lawyer said. His arrest last week led to angry protest demonstrations in Tijuana by supporters and employees. Local Catholic bishops wrote letters of support. But late Tuesday, a state judge freed Mr. Hank. A spokesman for the state prosecutor, Marco Vinicio Blanco, said the judge cited a lack of evidence in deciding not to hold Mr. Hank, the Associated Press said. Rommel Moreno, the attorney general of Baja California, whose biggest city is Tijuana, said Mr. Hank was being investigated for the 2009 killing of 24-year old Angelica Munoz, who Mr. Moreno said was the girlfriend of Mr. Hank's son Sergio Hank. Mr. Moreno said the allegations against Mr. Hank connecting him to Ms. Munoz' killing came from the testimony of a protected witness. Mr. Hank has denied all accusations of criminal activity. For years, Mr. Hank has been a poster boy for the deep-rooted corruption of the PRI, which ruled Mexico for seven decades until it was deposed in 2000. Mr. Hank's company, the Caliente Group, runs Tijuana's dog track as well as a gambling empire of casinos and off-track betting parlors. Mr. Hank, who was once briefly detained for trying to smuggle rare animal skins into Mexico, is fond of rare animals and operates a private zoo in Tijuana. But over the years, Mr. Hank, a multi-millionaire, has been the target for accusations ranging from charges of political corruption, ties with drug traffickers and even the 1988 murder of a reporter who worked for Tijuana's crusading weekly Zeta magazine. Mr. Hank's top bodyguard and another employee were convicted of that murder. Since then, Zeta has run weekly full page advertisements accusing Mr. Hank of being the mastermind of the killing, which he has denied. "Porque me mataste, Jorge Hank?" (Why did you kill me, Jorge Hank) Zeta publishes every week. A 2009 diplomatic cable signed by the U.S. consul in Tijuana and disclosed by Wikileaks said that Mr. Hank "is widely believed to have been a corrupt mayor and to be still involved in narco-trafficking." Mr. Hank has denied those accusations. The apparent failure of the government's case underlines the weakness of Mexico's justice system, which is vulnerable to corruption and where judges often dismiss weak cases brought by incompetent prosecutors. It marks a second large judicial defeat for Mr. Calderon's government. In 2009, prosecutors arrested 35 Michoacan state officials, including 10 mayors in the president's home state, and accused them of collusion with drug traffickers. All but one of the officials have since been freed by judges. "It's a huge political blow for Calderon, but an even bigger one for all Mexicans who had held out hope that the government had a strategy to deal with impunity," said Andrew Selee, the head of the Mexico Institute at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center. "It will likely mark a turning point in the government's effort to pursue those who aid and abet organized crime and mark a new low for public trust in the government's ability to address the problem." "It reinforces the distrust most Mexicans feel for the justice system," said Mr. Selee. Mr. Hank's apparent legal victory is a triumph for the PRI, said George Grayson, an expert on Mexican politics at The College of William and Mary. "They for sure are breaking out the champagne at PRI headquarters." Mr. Grayson said the government's inability to make the case against Mr. Hank show its ineptitude. "Calderon despite his 30 years in politics is a greenhorn at dealing with the PRI," he said. The former major is the son of the late legendary PRI politician Carlos Hank, known as "The Professor." The late Mr. Hank rose from being a humble school teacher to being governor of the state of Mexico as well as mayor of Mexico City. He is most remembered for coining a famous aphorism which described the corruption of the PRI, the political party that ran Mexico for seven decades before losing power in 2000: "A politician who is poor is a poor politician." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D