Former Mexico presidential candidate missing

From The Associated Press
May 15, 2010 | 2:38 p.m.

A former Mexican presidential candidate who has remained a power broker in the ruling party was missing amid signs of violence, the federal Attorney General's Office said Saturday.

Prosecutors said that the car of Diego Fernandez de Cevallos was found near his ranch in the central state of Queretaro. It said some of his belongings were found inside the car as well as unspecified "signs of violence."

The Mexican newspaper El Universal reported that federal sources said Fernandez de Cevallos had been kidnapped, but a federal prosecutor' spokeswoman said she could not confirm that.

Queretaro state Attorney General Arsenio Duran told the radio station Formato 21 that investigators found blood stains inside the car and a pair of eyeglasses, a pen and a pair of scissors that relatives said Fernandez de Cevallos often carried with him.

Duran said a night watchman told police Fernandez de Cevallos was supposed to arrive to his ranch in the town of Pedro Escobedo on Friday night but that he never made it.

Relatives who had planned to have breakfast with him Saturday morning reported him missing, Duran said. Relatives told authorities they have not been contacted by anyone about the disappearance of the 69-year-old.

Fernandez de Cevallos was the 1994 presidential candidate of the National Action Party that now governs Mexico and he has continued to be an influential figure, as well as one of Mexico's most successful attorneys.

The bearded, cigar-chomping candidate jumped out of obscurity during Mexico's first televised debate by presidential candidates in 1994, striking a chord with the middle class with his calls to topple a party that had held power since 1929.

He finished second to Ernesto Zedillo that year, but his party finally won the presidency six years later when Vicente Fox was elected.

Fernandez de Cevallos served as a senator and congressman while also winning some of the country's largest court judgments, often in suits against government agencies.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 7146.story