A Mexican former border state governor who is listed as a fugitive by the U.S. Department of Justice received an invitation to run for political office once more. The governor is wanted in connection with money laundering charges in the United States.
This week, leaders of Mexico’s Partido Verde Ecologista invited former Tamaulipas Governor Eugenio Hernandez Flores to run as a federal senator under their party. He previously served as the governor of Tamaulipas from 2005 to 2010, a time when drug cartels saw a boom due to the impunity with which they operated in the state.
Hernandez’s invitation to run for office in Mexico through Partido Verde is expected to cause much controversy as Hernandez also spent almost six years in jail in connection with embezzlement and money laundering charges in Tamaulipas and is still wanted in Texas. In August, a Mexican federal judge dismissed the Mexican cases against Hernandez, allowing him to walk free.
The move to run for office in Mexico could provide Hernandez with political immunity that would prevent a future arrest for extradition purposes.
As Breitbart Texas first reported, in 2015, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas announced Hernandez was sought in connection with money laundering and money laundering conspiracy charges. Since then, Hernandez has been listed as a fugitive by U.S. authorities and has an active warrant for his arrest out of Texas.
Hernandez is the second governor from Tamaulipas to face a criminal indictment. In 2021, former Tamaulipas Governor Tomas Yarrington pleaded guilty to federal money laundering charges as part of a plea deal where federal prosecutors dismissed more serious charges that included drug trafficking conspiracies.
As Breitbart Texas exclusively reported, while Hernandez and Yarrington were fugitives in the U.S., Mexican government officials protected them and provided them with armed police officers as bodyguards while they lived a life of luxury in Mexico.
In the case of Yarrington, agents with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, with the help of European authorities, were able to arrest him in 2017 despite the efforts of Mexico’s government to interfere in the case. Breitbart Texas reported exclusively on the diplomatic and government tension between the U.S. and Mexico following Yarrington’s arrests and the maneuvering of politicians who tried to interfere with his eventual extradition.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.