Former governor of Mexico’s state of Tamaulipas, TomásYarrington:
Is he guilty of protecting Mexico’s notorious Gulf Cartel, taking
millions
in bribes, money laundering and investing
in real estate in Texas: no,
no, no and no, according to Yarrington, who charges the ruling party
with cooking up the accusations to
smear the opposition before the
Mexico presidential election
on June 1.
Ex-Governor Calls Charges He Worked with Drug Cartels a 'Desperate' Campaign Stunt (El Universal, Mexico)
“What is happening
now is what has been expected for months or years: that the government
was going to try and influence the outcome of the campaign by seeking to
stigmatize or mark the PRI as a party of criminals. … In my
persecution, no justice is being sought. My persecution is a deception. I have
no connection with organized crime, I have received no bribes nor have I offered
protection to any criminal, nor have I been involved with money laundering
activities, nor do I have any real estate in Texas.”
-- TomásYarrington, former governor of the state of Tamaulipas
TomásYarrington, the former
governor of Tamaulipas [map
below], says that the Attorney General's Office is acting to further the
electoral interests of the presidency and the National Action Party [PRI] by attempting
to link him and two other former Tamaulipas governors with
organized crime.
[Editor’s
Note: All the accused governors were, as the Mexicans say, priísta
– members of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party. One of the other
men accused is former Tamaulipas Governor Eugenio
Hernandez Flores. The “third” former governor has yet to be named. The
Mexican presidential election is scheduled for June 1].
Yarrington has been mentioned in investigations
of both Mexico and the United States for having received millions in bribes
from drug cartels [chiefly the Gulf Cartel] and for having
laundered those assets in the financial systems of both nations.
“What is happening now is what has been expected for months
or years: that the government of the Republic was going to try and influence
the outcome of the campaign by seeking to stigmatize or mark the PRI
as a party of criminals," Yarrington said during
a radio interview with journalist Carmen Aristegui,
which took place at an undisclosed location.
“In my persecution, no justice is being sought. My
persecution is a deception. I have no connection with organized crime, I have received
no bribes nor have I offered protection to any criminal, nor have I been
involved with money laundering activities, nor do I have any real estate in
Texas. What has been done has to do with an inquiry – a preliminary inquiry in
2009 against three former PRI governors, which was designed to win time and
make sure that the Attorney General’s Office serves the electoral interests of
the presidency and his party," Yarrington said.
“In their desperation to aid Josefina Vazquez Mota [the
ruling PRI candidate], they are slandering and harming people and companies in
the state of Tamaulipas,” he said.
The Justice Department asserts that while serving in public
office, Yarrington received millions of dollars in payments
from drug trafficking organizations, and that both during and after his time in
office, through various methods of money laundering, he
used his illicit income to become an investor in real estate. The former
governor said that an arrest warrant may soon be issued against him with the intent
of influencing the election.
[Editor’s
Note: All the accused governors were, as the Mexicans say, 
