CUBA NEWS
March 31, 2004

CUBA NEWS
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Mexican Businessman in Scandal Arrested

MEXICO CITY, 30 (AP) - A businessman at the heart of a corruption scandal implicating the administration of Mexico City's popular mayor was arrested Tuesday in Cuba, prosecutors said.

Carlos Ahumada is the businessman widely seen on publicized videotapes handing out wads of cash to the former secretary of Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and to a borough leader belonging to Lopez Obrador's leftist Democratic Revolution Party.

Ahumada later admitted to making the videotapes himself because he said city officials were extorting him.

Ahumada fled the country and arrived in Cuba on Feb. 27, federal organized crime prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos told a news conference. On March 10, authorities issued a warrant for his arrest on fraud charges and declared him a fugitive. His whereabouts were unknown until his capture on Tuesday.

Mexico City prosecutors are investigating construction companies owned by Ahumada for allegations they collected $3 million in government funds for work that was never completed.

Vasconcelos said Mexico does not have an extradition treaty with Cuba, but the Attorney General's office for which he works later issued a news release saying such a treaty did exist and they would use it to pursue Ahumada's extradition. Cuban officials did not comment immediately.

The video scandal has led to the resignations of party officials and public servants and has provoked a sharp decline in the approval ratings of Lopez Obrador, who had been seen as a potential leading presidential contender in 2006.

Migrant Released From Hospital

Tue Mar 30, WPLG.

One of the three migrants who survived a dangerous journey from Cuba is out of the hospital.

The U.S. Border Patrol took Carlos Hernandez from Holy Cross Hospital to the Krome Detention Center Monday night. He could be released some time today.

He and two other migrants made it to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea in innertubes Thursday. Five others died at sea.

 


 

 


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