HomeNewsAnalysisArrest of Tijuana Ex-Mayor: Putting Crime in the 'Freezer'?
ANALYSIS

Arrest of Tijuana Ex-Mayor: Putting Crime in the 'Freezer'?

MEXICO / 6 JUN 2011 BY NATHAN JONES EN

Depending on your perspective, the arrest of former Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon could be seen as a step forward for Mexico's battle against organized crime, or a step backwards for the country's political process.

Hank, a member of Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional - PRI), was arrested with ten of his bodyguards by the Mexican Army on June 4, and charged with the illegal possession of 88 guns and more than 9,000 rounds of ammunition, the army said in a statement. The suspect was taken in a Hercules transport plane to Mexico City.

For some, the former mayor's arrest comes two decades late. In 1988, two of Hank's bodyguards were linked to the killing of Zeta magazine reporter Hector Felix Miranda. Zeta continues to publish a weekly notice questioning Hank over the murder.

To be sure, Hank is as notorious as the city of Tijuana itself. He has long been accused of working closely with the Arellano Felix Organization (AFO), also known as the Tijuana Cartel, though no formal charges have ever successfully been leveled against him.

Still, his ostentatious lifestyle has made him a lightening rod for critics of Tijuana's narco-business-political nexus. Hank, for example, has expensive taste in exotic animals including white tigers, which he keeps in his own zoos and sometimes at his racetrack, as witnessed by this reporter.

Hank's father, Carlos Hank Gonzalez, was also wealthy and politically powerful throughout the country. He left much of this to Jorge, who runs a chain of successful and ubiquitous casinos in Mexico; partially owns Banorte, one of the only domestically owned banks in Mexico following the 1994 peso collapse; and has various other business interests throughout the country.

Hank's shady business interests and alleged connection to a murder made him a possible target for investigation for many different crimes including money laundering and murder, so the surprise arrest for the relatively petty crime of illegal possession of weapons has Tijuana wondering if there are political motivations for Hank's untimely detention.

Hank's soccer franchise, El Xolos, won Mexico's national championship last month. This caused speculation that Hank could have his pick of positions in Baja California, including returning for Tijuana's Municipal Presidency (Mexico's term for the mayor’s office) or going for the Baja state governor's office.

Hank's political record was mixed. He was elected municipal president of Tijuana in 2004, where, among other things, he increased the police budget and paid for improved police infrastructure in the city. But crime, in particular murder and kidnapping, soared at the end of his term, as the Arellano Felix family struggled to maintain control of their splintering organization and battled the violent incursion of a rival, the Sinaloa Cartel.

However, Hank has influence beyond Baja state, and analysts like Professor Lorena Perez-Floriano of the Colegio de La Frontera Norte (COLEF) of Tijuana speculate that Hank’s arrest may have had more to do with the upcoming elections in Mexico State than his ambitions in Baja.

Perez-Floriano points out that Hank’s father once led the politically powerful Grupo Atlacomulco in Mexico State. And Hank’s popularity and charisma, in addition to his ownership of the national championship Xolos, gave him the ability to campaign for PRI candidates in that important state, which will hold local elections in early July.

Enter the National Action Party (Partido de Accion Nacional - PAN), currently the country's ruling party led by Mexico's President Felipe Calderon. The PAN is facing a bleak political forecast, especially as pressure mounts against Calderon to slow the carnage that has left close to 40,000 dead since he began his frontal assault on large criminal organizations in December 2006.

Mexico State, one of the country's most populous and politically important states, may be the primer for presidential elections next year. The PAN tried and failed to establish a coalition there with the left-leaning Democratic Revolutionary Party (Partido de la Revolucion Democratica - PRD.

Desperate, the PAN moved to take Hank out of the equation by publicly humiliating him through arrest, says Perez-Floriano. This, in Mexico parlance, is known as “putting him in the freezer.”

The claim may have merit. Hank has had bodyguards and weapons for years. His wife said that none of the guns are illegal, as they were allowed for the security of the Caliente Race Track, which Hank owns.

There are precedents for this kind of alleged legal attack against a political rival. In 2009, authorities arrested ten Michoacan mayors of the opposition PRD; nine were later released for lack of evidence.

Jones is a PhD candidate at the University of California Irvine. He is currently doing field work in Tijuana, Mexico.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

CRIMINAL MIGRATION / 15 FEB 2023

In Mexico's hotly contested Tierra Caliente region, one priest is caught between the CJNG and a smattering of violent criminal…

METHAMPHETAMINE / 28 FEB 2022

After the seizure of 700 gallons of liquid methamphetamine in a Texas border town, it’s clear that traffickers are using…

MÉXICO / 25 MAR 2022

According to the Mexican president, the recent arrest of the alleged leader of the Northeast Cartel followed by a major…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…