Mexico: Information on a car theft scandal in Guanajuato, exposed in April 1995 and mentioned in the 22 May 1995 edition of The New York Times (as attached to Response to Information Request MEX26849.E)

The information that follows was published in a 23 May 1995 article of La Jornada, which is available in Spanish through the newspaper's web site.

The discovery and exposure of a car-theft gang in Guanajuato occurred in early April, and is described as a peak in an ongoing campaign of mutual image tarnishing between gubernatorial candidates of the state. The state attorney (Procuradoría de Justicia del estado) officially implicated the opposition candidate, identified the stolen vehicles that served the candidate's campaign, and despite the gravity of the case, the investigation was inexplicably stopped.

In early April 1995 the state attorney discovered and documented the existence of a gang that stole cars and later sold them at very low prices, supposedly for the purpose of supporting the campaign of Ignacio Vazquez Torres (of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI).

The investigations conducted by the state government (led by the Partido de Accion Nacional, PAN) were swift, and reached the campaign team of the PRI candidate, which had been using at least four stolen vehicles for its campaign.

At the time this article was published, some 50 stolen cars had been recovered, and yet not a single alleged thief has faced legal action. The leader of the gang has been fully identified, some 20 armed assaults in Mexico City have been documented, and the vehicles taken during these incidents have been recovered in Guanajuato, but the case seems to have been filed away. The leader of the car theft gang was identified as Angel Corrales Aranda, nephew of former governor Rafael Corrales Ayala, both of whom are fugitives (prófugo).

The car theft exposé was the first big blow that Guanajuato's governing party dealt to the PRI campaign. The investigations did lead to the campaign of PRI candidate Vazquez Torres. However, the two sides met and decided to give the matter a "low profile." Officials of the state government stated that taking the car theft investigation to its ultimate conclusion could have caused a conflict of national proportions with a very high political cost to the PAN, which already expects a victory on the 28 May 1995 elections.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Reference

La Jornada [Mexico City]. 23 May 1995. "En Guanajuato, duelo de golpes bajos PRI-PAN; insultos y acusaciones sin pruebas, contenido de las dos campañas." [Internet]  [Accessed 22 Sept. 1997]

Additional Sources Consulted

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Latin America Daily Report.

Keesing's Record of World Events [Cambridge]. Monthly.

Latin America Weekly Report [London].

Latin American Regional Reports: Mexico & NAFTA Report [London]. Monthly.

Latinamerica Press [Lima]. Weekly.

Mexico NewsPak [Austin, Tex.]. Fortnightly.

Material from the Indexed Media Review (IMR) or country files containing articles and reports from diverse sources (primarily dailies and periodicals) from the Weekly Media Review.

Newspapers and periodicals pertaining to the appropriate region.

Electronic sources: Internet, DIRB databases, Global NewsBank, Refworld (UNHCR database).

Note:

             This list is not exhaustive. Country-specific books available in the Resource Centre are not included.