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By Chris Covert
One of the alleged culprits in the 2011 debt scandal in the Mexican state of Coahuila had his bail revoked and is likely on the run, according to Mexican news accounts.
Javier Villareal Hernandez, the disgraced head of the Coahuila tax collection service had been out on bond after he was caught by Coahuila state police agents attempting to board an aircraft leaving for the United States in late October, 2011.
Villareal, along with several others had been accused of falsifying Coahuila state documents in order to get loans from private banks. As far as news reports indicated, the attempts by Villareal to get those loans had been going on since about 2009. His role became public as Partido Accion Nacional president Gustavo Madero Munoz began in August, 2011 to make the tremendous run up of Coahuila public debt a political issue.
To read Rantburg reports on the scandal, click here and here.
Former Coahuila governor Humberto Moreira Valdes had presided over that run up, and had left his post in early 2011 to lead the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). Just coming off a stunning series of wins in several state elections in July, 2011, Moreiria's role in the scandal affected the final race in Michoacan state, where, even though a PRI governor took the state, the win was by less than 40,000 votes. PRI also had a poor showing in the Michoacan Chamber of Deputies.
Moreira resigned from his post in December, 2011 after suffering near constant attacks and questions from both within and outside his political organization.
According to the El Diario de Coahuila website, a Coahuila state judge presiding over the matter revoked Villareal's bail Tuesday, and issued a rearrest warrant. Under Mexican criminal law, bail is usually very low even for serious crimes. Villareal was charged with falsifying public documents, apparently not a serious crime. News reports in late October, 2011 said that Villareal's bail had been set at MP $10.00 or about USD $0.77.
In November, 2011 when Villareal attempted flight, he was brought before the court and additional conditions were set on his bail, such as routinely checking in with the court.
News reports also indicated that Villareal and his family had purchased a number of real estate properties in Texas. The implication to those reports was that Villareal had so far dodged the far more serious crime of illicit enrichment. The purchase of real estate in the US on the salary of a public official may have been an indicator that Villareal could possibly -- though unlikely -- have been skimming proceeds, or had been paid by other parties to the transaction to make those loans.
Under Mexican law every loan contracted by a public entity such as a state must have legislative approval, and those approvals along with the loan proceeds must be brought to Mexico City to be registered. Additionally, documents showing legislative approval must be posted on the internet showing a serial number and the amount.
Villareal instead allegedly used unrelated legislative decrees, as well as those from other states to gain loan proceeds. In at least one case documented in a news report, two unidentified bank officials even travelled with Coahuila state officials -- namely Sergio Ricardo Fuentes and Jaime Rene Jimenez -- aboard official state aircraft to deliver the loan documents.
Fuentes Flores and an undisclosed number of former state officials also had their bail revoked. Fuentes Flores was formerly head of Administrador General de Politicas Publicas del SATEC, or Administrator General of Public Policy of SATEC.
To see a list of other individuals allegedly involved in the Coahula debt scandal and some background material on the scandal, click here.
The El Diario de Coahuila report also says that Villareal may have run to Cuba.