Jorge Hank Rhon - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Jorge Hank Rhon is a Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

politician, businessman and owner of Mexico's largest sports betting company, Caliente. An eccentric and controversial personality, he served from December 2004 to February 2007 as the president of the municipality of Tijuana. He is the son of former Mexico City mayor

Head of Government of the Federal District

The Head of Government wields executive power in the Mexican Federal District.The Head of Government serves a six-year term, running concurrently with that of the President of the Republic....

Carlos Hank González

Carlos Hank González , nicknamed El Profesor , was a Mexican politician and influential businessman. Originally a teacher, he was an entrepreneur who built political contacts along with a business empire, leading to various government and political positions at the state and national level...

and Guadalupe Rhon. Hank is the father of 19 children with several different women; he is also the stepfather of matador Alejandro Amaya

Alejandro Amaya

Alejandro Amaya is one of Mexico's celebrity Matadors.Amaya resides in Monterrey, Nuevo León, México, at the ranch of Matador Eloy Cavazos.His real name is Alejandro de la Vega Amaya....

Biography

Jorge Hank Rhon studied at the Alexander Von Humboldt German College

Colegio Alemán Alexander von Humboldt

Colegio Alemán Alexander von Humbolt, A. C. is a German school with bi-cultural fundamentals based in Mexico. Its history begins in the 19th century, with the already large German community living in Mexico, believing in establishing a school with standards similar to those of Germany. The first...

and Industrial Engineering

Industrial engineering

Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis...

at the Universidad Anáhuac in the State of Mexico. In 1980 he founded the Grupo Taos, a company that operates pet stores and amusement parks of which he is the President of the Board and General Director. He moved to Tijuana in 1985 to manage the Agua Caliente Racetrack

Agua Caliente Racetrack

The Agua Caliente Racetrack is a greyhound racing and former horse racing track in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. It opened in December 1929 at a cost of $2.5 million.One year before, the Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel opened in June 1928....

and formed the Grupo Caliente which includes the dog racing track, a hotel, a mall and a network of entertainment centers in 19 states of Mexico

States of Mexico

The United Mexican States is a federal republic formed by 32 federal entities .According to the Constitution of 1917, the states of the federation are free and sovereign. Each state has their own congress and constitution, while the Federal District has only limited autonomy with a local Congress...

as well as 13 countries of Central

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

, South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. The number of employees of the racetrack grew from 700 to close to 6,000. During his management Tijuana has hosted the Señorita México

Señorita México

Señorita México was the name of a national beauty pageant in Mexico, celebrated since 1952. After 2005, the pageant changed its name to "Miss Mexico". From 1952 to 1993, was the official pageant responsible for sending the country's representatives to the Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss...

pageant, the World Boxing title fight between Julio César Chávez

Julio César Chávez

Julio César Chávez is a retired Mexican professional boxer.He is a six-time world champion in three weight divisions, and for several years he was considered the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world...

and Danilo Cabrera and from 1986 to 1988 the Caribe International Classic Horserace, considered the most important in Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

. The Racetrack also hosts the Day of the Three Wise Men, Children's Day, Mother's Day where thousands of children and their mothers receive free food, gifts and an entertainment show since 1988. Hank also created the Cuauhtémoc Hank Foundation to give scholarships to students of all grades including studies in foreign schools.

Jorge Hank is also known as an animal lover and trader. However, his purported love for animals has been fouled by reports that many of his animals are the result of smuggling. Jorge Hank says his favorite animal is women. In 1991, he was directly linked to a failed illicit deal for an endangered gorilla

Gorilla

Gorillas are the largest extant species of primates. They are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies...

, but was never formally charged.

Campaign for municipal president

Hank won the Tijuana

Tijuana

Tijuana is the largest city on the Baja California Peninsula and center of the Tijuana metropolitan area, part of the international San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. An industrial and financial center of Mexico, Tijuana exerts a strong influence on economics, education, culture, art, and politics...

mayoral race of 2004, beating PAN

National Action Party (Mexico)

The National Action Party , is one of the three main political parties in Mexico. The party's political platform is generally considered Centre-Right in the Mexican political spectrum. Since 2000, the President of Mexico has been a member of this party; both houses have PAN pluralities, but the...

candidate Jorge Ramos by a slim margin, thus ending 15 years of PAN government in Tijuana. His apparent charisma and high profile lifestyle, along with the support of the general population due to his perceived generosity and charity, may have assisted him in surmounting the political disadvantage.

After the election

After the elections, the PAN attempted to nullify the election due to several irregularities. Every claim by the PAN was rejected by the Baja California State Electoral Institute. The PAN then appealed before the Federal Electoral Tribunal

Federal Electoral Tribunal

The Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary is a venue within the judiciary of Mexico that specialises in electoral matters. Among its functions are resolving disputes arising within federal elections and certifying the validity of those elections, including those of the President of the...

which on November 14, 2004 rejected PAN claims to invalidate the election.

One of the claims was that Hank's campaign team distributed material criticizing Ramos, the PAN candidate. The PAN representatives presented pictures of multiple fliers in a car of an alleged PRI affiliate. The TRIFE found that there was no logical link between the fliers and the assumption that there were many more and to conclude this was not an isolated case. The PAN also claimed that the website www.expedientepublico.com published material against Ramos but the TRIFE concluded that in the absence of an author for the site it was unable to conclude the author was a member of the PRI or Hank himself.

The PAN also complained that Hank used religious paraphernalia during his campaign and provided a newspaper cutout of a journalist commenting that Hank made a public invitation to attend mass. The PAN did not provide any other proof of the alleged invitation to mass and the TRIFE found that the sole commentary did not prove Hank's invitation.

Another set of allegations were based on Hank's team exceeding budget limits set by the electoral body, including radio and television spots and this set an inequitable condition for Ramos. The TRIFE noted that the PAN had a longer exposure of TV spots than the PRI and that the Baja California electoral body did not find that an alleged excess in budget would create a disadvantageous position for the PAN candidate even in the most favorable scenario for the PAN. In addition to this, the PAN did not provide costs of the television spots, only the number of them. In regards to campaign events, the PAN provided 28 copies of newspaper cutouts that appeared to contradict each other and some of the cutouts describe the same event. The PAN also provided newspaper cutouts referring to a raffle

Raffle

A raffle is a competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each ticket having the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn from a container holding a copy of every number...

of ten Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...

trucks but failed to demonstrate the Institutional Revolutionary Party paid for them and should be included in campaign budgets. Audio provided by the PAN also mentions not Hank but Samuel Ramos

Samuel Ramos

Dr. Samuel Ramos was a Mexican philosopher and writer.Ramos was born in Zitácuaro, Michoacán, and in 1909 entered the Colegio de San Nicolás in Hidalgo. He published his first works in the school's student publication Flor de Loto...

, the PRI candidate for Mexicali

Mexicali

Mexicali is the capital of the State of Baja California, seat of the Municipality of Mexicali, and 2nd largest city in Baja California. The City of Mexicali has a population of 689,775, according to the 2010 census, while the population of the entire metropolitan area reaches 936,826.The city...

, not Tijuana. Radio and television spot costs estimates lacked name and signature of the person issuing them.

The PAN also accused Hank of having an alternative financing scheme through the Cuauhtémoc Hank Foundation based on Hank's own declarations. However, the PAN did not provide any proof of these asseverations and only assumed there was an alternative financing scheme. The PAN presented a newspaper cutout describing Hank as the director of the foundation but the TRIFE did not find this proved there was a financing scheme.

The PAN also alleged that Hank had broadcast television spots before his campaign started but did not provide dates or television station. The PAN also claimed a number of calls made to the emergency line 066 in which people mentioned the presence of the "red tide" (people wearing red shirts and hats near voting booths, characteristic of Hank's campaign), but the number of calls the PAN presented was higher than those reported and in most of those calls the caller failed to provide their last name and location of the voting booths. To support their claims the PAN provided pictures of these red-hat and red-shirt-wearing individuals but the pictures were in black and white.

Mayor of Tijuana

The most notable infrastructure improvement in Tijuana during the Hank administration was the multi-million investment on an underpass at the Alba Roja intersection, just south of the 5 y 10 intersection. The 5 y 10 intersection is one of the most famous in the city and with the heaviest traffic. The investment was for a figure close to 45 million pesos, more than four million dollars.

On February 8, 2005 the Hank administration inaugurated the five million pesos Center of Communication, Control, Computing and Command (C4) that included 60 high definition

High-definition video

High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...

cameras. In order the reduce kidnappings, a problem of Tijuana for many years, the municipal government started a program of installing GPS devices on the cars of potential victims. In 2007, a program of road safety cameras was introduced in Tijuana that issued speeding tickets in which some drivers received up to 800 tickets issued the same day, same time, and on the same location.

The Hank administration produced significant urban development but failed to significantly reduce crime In 2007, the Operation Tijuana of the Federal Government only momentarily reduced serious crimes and ordinary crimes increased 40% and it was detected corruption amongst the federal forces. The operation was then extended to the five municipalities of the state and dubbed Operation Baja California

Operation Baja California

Operation Tijuana or Operation Baja California of the Government of Mexico is taking place in Tijuana and the surrounding areas of Baja California...

, per request of the governor Eugenio Elorduy Walther

Eugenio Elorduy Walther

Eugenio Elorduy Walther is a Mexican politician and governor of his adoptive state of Baja California from November 1, 2001 thru October 31, 2007. His wife Elena Blackaller serves as first lady.-Biography:...

.

On February 20, 2007 Hank requested a license to leave his post as mayor. The license was approved by nine PRI representatives with six PAN representatives rejecting the license and one PRD representative abstaining from voting. Multiple billboards reporting Hank actions as mayor were put out after the annual report and PAN representative complained and offered to remove the PAN-sponsored radio spots on fighting radar camera-issued tickets.

Run for governor of Baja California

At the end of 2006, Jorge Hank expressed his wishes to run a campaign for the 2007 Baja California state election

Baja California state election, 2007

Local elections were held in the Mexican State of Baja California on Sunday, August 5, 2007. According to the preliminary results program, José Guadalupe Osuna Millán of the Alliance for Baja California was elected governor by a 7% margin over candidate Jorge Hank Rohn of the Alliance for a Better...

.
This flared up comments from PAN politicians saying that he would be violating the state's Antichapulin ("anti-grasshopper

Grasshopper

The grasshopper is an insect of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. To distinguish it from bush crickets or katydids, it is sometimes referred to as the short-horned grasshopper...

") law which prohibits a person of public office to "jump" from one charge to another without ending their current term.

In February 2007 he requested permission from leaving his post as municipal president to accept the candidacy for governor by the Alianza para que vivas mejor (The Alliance So You May live better), which was approved by his party's regidor

Regidor

A Regidor is a member of a council of municipalities in Spain and Latin America. Portugal also used to have the same office of Regedor.-Mexico:...

es and denied by the PAN regidor

Regidor

A Regidor is a member of a council of municipalities in Spain and Latin America. Portugal also used to have the same office of Regedor.-Mexico:...

es. The PAN also accused five district electoral council members of partiality towards Hank because they served as judges during his administration as president of Tijuana. The Federal Electoral Tribune rejected the complaint determining that the law does not have such restriction that would prevent these five lawyers from serving as judges and then as council members

On June 20, 2007, Baja California's state elections court voted 2 to 1 in favor of the validity of the so-called "anti grasshopper law" thus cancelling Hank's bid for Governor. He appealed the decision before the Federal Electoral Tribunal

Federal Electoral Tribunal

, which unanimously ruled to uphold his candidacy on July 7, holding that the state law contravened the electoral and political rights of the citizenry. Pending that decision, Hank was not a registered candidate and had to abstain from campaigning. The election date was Sunday August 5, 2007.

According to the Baja California's State Electoral Institute, Jorge Hank lost the election by 8 points (almost 55,000 votes) against Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millan, PAN's candidate.

Charges and arrests

Carlos Hank González

and son Jorge Hank were linked by the media with various drug lords and money-laundering after the leak of National Drug Intelligence Center

National Drug Intelligence Center

The U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center , established in 1993, is a component of the U.S. Department of Justice and a member of the Intelligence Community...

-drafted documents. However, the United States Attorney General

United States Attorney General

The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...

at the time Janet Reno

Janet Reno

Janet Wood Reno is a former Attorney General of the United States . She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11...

discredited such report and apologized to the Hank family. Hank has long been accused of working closely with the Tijuana drug cartel

Tijuana Cartel

The Tijuana Cartel is a Mexican drug cartel based in Tijuana. The cartel has been described as "one of the biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico"...

, though no formal charges have ever successfully been leveled against him.
Hank Rhon’s chief bodyguard, Antonio Vera Palestina, was convicted of the 1988 murder of journalist Hector Felix Miranda, who had criticized Hank Rhon in his writing. Antonio Vera's son, Jorge Vera Ayala, became Hank's chief bodyguard.

Hank was first arrested in 1995 at the Mexico City airport when he was caught carrying a suitcase full of articles made of ivory tusks, pearl vests and coats made from the skins of endangered ocelot

Ocelot

The ocelot , pronounced /ˈɒsəˌlɒt/, also known as the dwarf leopard or McKenney's wildcat is a wild cat distributed over South and Central America and Mexico, but has been reported as far north as Texas and in Trinidad, in the Caribbean...

s, but Hank claimed that no law had been broken and the merchandise was legal. He was released on bail and was later acquitted.

Information released by Wikileaks

Wikileaks

WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...

, reveal that Mexican military forces were involved in a standoff with local security at Hank's racetrack in May 2009. Then on July 8, 2009, then Consul General Ronald Kramer wrote a confidential cable to the U.S. Secretary of State that said the grounds of the Agua Caliente racetrack, owned by Hank Rhon, were "still secure havens for organized crime." The cable cited no evidence.

U.S. officials have long been suspicious of Hank Rhon, as gambling can be a prime way to launder money, so Nevada's Gaming Control Board has twice warned companies operating there to avoid any contracts with Hank's 'Grupo Caliente', and his U.S. visa was apparently revoked in 2009. Mexican media reports that U.S. DEA

DEA

DEA is the commonly used acronym for the Drug Enforcement Administration, a United States law enforcement agency.DEA or Dea may also refer to:- Organizations :* DEA , UK development education charity...

agents monitor every arrival of Hank's private jet to the U.S. but have not seen him on board.

On the morning of June 4, 2011, about 100 Mexican soldiers raided Hank Rhon's property in search of drugs and weapons, seizing an arsenal of 40 rifles (weapons normally used exclusively by the Mexican military), 48 handguns and 9,000 rounds of ammunition, and Hank was taken into custody. While he denied knowledge of the weapons that were seized at his home, his wife María Elvia Amaya issued a contradictory statement saying the weapons were all authorized for use by security personnel on the compound. Hank's lawyer, Fernando Benítez Álvarez del Castillo, told the federal judge that the weapons were planted by the military.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General

Attorney General (Mexico)

The Attorney General of Mexico is the head of the Office of the General Prosecutor and the Federal Public Ministry , an institution belonging to the Federal executive branch that is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of...

stated that ballistic evidence shows that two handguns of the 88 firearms seized have been linked to homicides in Baja California

Baja California

Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...

. A seized .40 caliber handgun was used in the killing of car dealer Martín Feliciano Camacho Ontiveros on 28 June 2010; and a .380 caliber handgun was used in the 16 December 2009 murder of security guard Olegario Figueroa Leandro. After 10 days in jail, a federal judge ruled that the raid was performed without a warrant, and therefore, all evidence against him is inadmissible. Then, a state judge refused to hold him on a murder investigation. All charges were dropped and he was released on 14 June 2011.

The attorney general of Baja California said Hank was also being investigated for the 2009 killing of 24-year old Angelica Muñoz, who was the girlfriend of Hank's son Sergio Hank.

External links

PorqueHank.com ("Why Hank") — Official campaign site for Governor of Baja California
Governor of Baja California
The Governor of Baja California represents the executive branch of the government of the state of Baja California, Mexico, per the state's constitution. The official title is "Free and Sovereign State of Baja California" , and the position is democratically elected for a period of 6 years, and is...

(Spanish)
Presidential webpage at the Municipality of Tijuana
Municipality of Tijuana
Tijuana Municipality is a municipality in the Mexican state of Baja California. Its municipal seat is located in the city of Tijuana. According to the 2010 census, the municipality had a population of 1,559,683 inhabitants, of whom 1,300,983, or 83.4%, lived in the city of Tijuana...

government site (Spanish)
White Tiger Report

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