Bodyguard for Mexican governor ordered jailed on suspicion of belonging to drug cartel

Published July 06, 2010

| Associated Press

MEXICO CITY

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The bodyguard of a Mexican state governor was ordered jailed Tuesday pending an investigation into allegations that he belongs to a drug cartel, one of a string of scandals that plagued weekend elections.

Ismael Ortega Galicia, a bodyguard for Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernandez, was detained for questioning over the weekend after the newspaper Reforma reported he was on a U.S. Treasury Department list of key members of the Gulf or Zetas gangs.

A judge ordered Ortega held for 40 days pending an investigation, the federal Attorney General's Office said in a statement.

His arrest came a week after gunmen killed the governor's hand-picked successor, Rodolfo Torre. However, officials at the Attorney General's Office said Ortega was not under investigation for the attack.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party chose Torre's brother, Egidio, to run in his place, and he easily won Sunday's election.

Hernandez's government has defended the bodyguard, saying Ortega has been arrested several times before and released for lack of evidence. Tamaulipas officials also say Ortega has accompanied the governor on several trips to the United States without being detained or having any problems, despite the Treasury Department listing.

Treasury Department official did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Gulf and Zetas gangs are former allies fighting a bloody turf war in Tamaulipas, a state bordering Texas from where both cartels emerged.

Torre and four of his companions were killed when gunmen ambushed his campaign caravan June 28.

President Felipe Calderon called the assassination an attempt by drug cartels to sway elections for governors, mayors and local posts in 15 states. Calderon's government called Torre an honest man with no corruption scandals in his past, but leaders of the president's National Action Party have long insinuated Torre's party protects cartels in Tamaulipas.

Such allegations also shadowed elections for governor in the states of Sinaloa and Quintana Roo.

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