Carlos Ahumada

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Carlos Ahumada Kurz interviewed by Televisa when he was aprehended by the Interpol in Cuba
Carlos Ahumada Kurz interviewed by Televisa when he was aprehended by the Interpol in Cuba

Carlos Ahumada Kurtz (born in 1964 in Córdoba, Argentina) is a Mexican businessman owner of Grupo Quart, a newspaper (El Independiente) and two football clubs (Santos Laguna and León) in Mexico who was convicted for corruption-related crimes in Mexico City in 2004.

Ahumada Kurtz moved to Mexico at the age of 11 on October 6, 1975 [1] with his mother and brother Pablo and in 1991 acquired Mexican citizenship.

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[edit] Government contracts

In 1990 he fled the country when the company owned by his brother Roberto Aníbal was accused of fraud against 900 senior citizens using a pyramid scheme in 1987[2] for the amount of 36 million pesos. Two years later he founded his company Grupo Quart. His company obtained a contract in 1994 to build two overpasses for the city of Acapulco. That same year he was imprisoned for 29 days for generic fraud.

He also obtained contracts for paving streets for the government of the Federal District during the administration of Manuel Camacho Solís (PRI) but it was until 1988 during the administration of the first-elected head of government, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas (1997-99, PRD) that the number of contracts became significant. Under the administration of Rosario Robles (1999-2000, PRD) the number of contracts increased furthermore. In 2003 he obtained contracts for 370 million pesos in Álvaro Obregón, D.F. a borough of Mexico City adminstered by Luis Eduardo Zuno, member of the PAN [3]. Zuno was later imprisoned when he was discovered with a plane and armament on July 4 of the same year [4].

[edit] Videoscandals

Main article: Videoscandals

On June 10, 2003 Ahumada videotaped a conversation with René Bejarano, then local deputy in the congress of the Federal District and former personal secretary of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Head of Government of the Federal District and current presidential candidate representing the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in the 2006 elections. The conversation was then presented by Federico Döring, a politician belonging to the National Action Party (PAN), on Víctor Trujillo's high rated television talk show on March 3 of the same year. In the video, a faceless person was offering $45,000 in cash to Bejarano [5]. Bejarano then declared the funds were donations to the campaign of Leticia Robles Colín, another PRD politician. When it was discovered the faceless person in the video was Ahumada, he declared that public servants of the government of the Federal District had been blackmailing him since at least the previous year [4].

Another video made public in the evening of March 3 showed a conversation between Ahumada and Bejarano where the first complaints about non-payments by the Federal District government to Quart. Bejarano then promises to speak woth López Obrador about the issue and to remind him that Ahumada has financed the campaigns of several PRD members [6]. This incident and another video of similar content were labeled videoscandals by the press. Carlos Ahumada then flew to Havana, Cuba entering the country on February 27 with a Mexican passport. Days later, on March 12 Interpol notified the government of Cuba that Ahumada is being required in Mexico to respond to criminal charges, he was detained on March 30. The government of Mexico through its ambassador in Cuba, Roberta Lajous, initiated the process of extradition the next day and on April 28 of the same year Ahumada was deported to Mexico City where he remains imprisoned. Ahumada repeatedly denounced a conspiracy headed by ex-president Carlos Salinas de Gortari seeking to "banish Andrés Manuel López Obrador off the Presidential Ballot", which implicated Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, Secretary of the Interior Santiago Creel and senator Diego Fernández de Ceballos. This conspiracy is also denounced on a video that appered later.

Bejarano renounced to his membership to the PRD [7] the same day the videos were made public and was controversially freed on bail in 2005 [8]. Rosario Robles, whose trip to Cuba helped locate Ahumada, renounced her party, the PRD. Carlos Imaz, borough mayor of Tlalpan, and Octavio Flores, borough mayor of Gustavo A. Madero renounced to their positions in government, they were also members of the PRD.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ ¿Quién es Carlos Ahumada? March 3, 2004. Retrieved on February 17, 2006 from eluniversal.com.mx (Spanish)
  2. ^ http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2004/04/04/mas-najar.html April 4, 2004. Retrieved on February 17, 2006 from jornada.unam.mx (Spanish)
  3. ^ Reconoce Ahumada red con políticos March 31, 2004. Retrieved on February 17, 2006 from terra.com.mx (Spanish)
  4. ^ a b Denuncia Ahumada extorsión de GDF March 3, 2004. Retrieved on February 17, 2006 from terra.com.mx (Spanish)
  5. ^ Los Ahumada defienden el origen de su fortuna April 2, 2004. Retrieved on February 17, 2006 from lavoz.com.ar (Spanish)
  6. ^ Video revela ayuda de Bejarano a Ahumada March 3, 2004. Retrieved on February 17, 2004 from terra.com.mx (Spanish)
  7. ^ Renuncia Bejarano a militancia del PRD March 3, 2004. Retrieved on February 17, 2004 from terra.com.mx (Spanish)
  8. ^ Nueva fase en caso del empresario Carlos Ahumada April 28, 2004. Retrieved on February 17, 2006 from tvazteca.com (Spanish)

[edit] External link

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