Bodyguard for Mexican governor ordered jailed on suspicion of belonging to drug cartel

Mexican governor’s guard accused of drug ties

MEXICO CITY — The bodyguard of a Mexican state governor was ordered jailed Tuesday pending an investigation into allegations that he belongs to a drug cartel, one of a string of scandals that plagued weekend elections.

Ismael Ortega Galicia, a bodyguard for Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernandez, was detained for questioning over the weekend after the newspaper Reforma reported he was on a U.S. Treasury Department list of key members of the Gulf or Zetas gangs.

A judge ordered Ortega held for 40 days pending an investigation, the federal Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.

His arrest came a week after gunmen killed the governor’s hand-picked successor, Rodolfo Torre. However, officials at the Attorney General’s Office said Ortega was not under investigation for the attack.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party chose Torre’s brother, Egidio, to run in his place, and he easily won Sunday’s election.

Hernandez’s government has defended the bodyguard, saying Ortega has been arrested several times before and released for lack of evidence. Tamaulipas officials also say Ortega has accompanied the governor on several trips to the United States without being detained or having any problems, despite the Treasury Department listing.

Treasury Department official did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Gulf and Zetas gangs are former allies fighting a bloody turf war in Tamaulipas, a state bordering Texas from where both cartels emerged.

Torre and four of his companions were killed when gunmen ambushed his campaign caravan June 28.

President Felipe Calderon called the assassination an attempt by drug cartels to sway elections for governors, mayors and local posts in 15 states. Calderon’s government called Torre an honest man with no corruption scandals in his past, but leaders of the president’s National Action Party have long insinuated Torre’s party protects cartels in Tamaulipas.

Such allegations also shadowed elections for governor in the states of Sinaloa and Quintana Roo.

Meanwhile, the Public Safety Department said in a statement that it had arrested a man in the June 30 killing of a top prosecutor for the northern state of Chihuahua.

The prosecutor, Sandra Salas, had been responsible for evaluating the work of public prosecutors and special investigatory units in Ciudad Juarez, which borders El Paso, Texas.

The department said the suspect, Cristian Rosado, was arrested Monday and told investigators that Salas was killed because she meddled into the dealings of the La Linea, the enforcement arm of the Juarez cartel.

The statement said Rosado began working as a hit man for the cartel two months ago and had been involved in at least 15 killings.

Also Tuesday, police found the body of a reporter who was shot to death in a western Mexican town plagued by drug gang violence — the sixth journalist reported slain in the country this year.

The Michoacan state Attorney General’s Office said Hugo Olivera’s body was in his pickup truck in Apatzingan. He had last talked to his family Monday night.

Olivera, 28, reported for La Voz de Michoacan, a main newspaper in the state that is a stronghold of La Familia cartel. He was also editor of the newspaper El Dia de Michoacan.

The National Human Rights Commission says 63 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000. Press freedom groups say Mexico is one of the world’s deadliest countries for journalists.