César Horacio Duarte Jáquez (born April 14, 1963) is a Mexican politician, a member of the

Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party (, , PRI) is a List of political parties in Mexico, political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 as the National Revolutionary Party (, PNR), then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (, PRM) and fin ...

, who has twice been a federal deputy. He was president of the

Chamber of Deputies of Mexico The Chamber of Deputies ( Spanish: , ) is the lower house of the Congress of the Union, the bicameral parliament of Mexico. The other chamber is the Senate. The structure and responsibilities of both chambers of Congress are defined in Article ...

from 2008 to 2009, while representing Chihuahua's ninth district, and he served as

governor of Chihuahua According to the Political Constitution of the Free and Sovereign State of Chihuahua, Executive Power in that Mexican state resides with a single individual, the Constitutional Governor of the Free and Sovereign State of Chihuahua, who is chose ...

for the period 2010 to 2016. César Duarte is currently under investigation for corruption and an arrest warrant against him and other close members of his government was issued on March 27, 2017. According to the ''Financial Times'' in 2018, he was "believed to be in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

". He was arrested in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, United States, in July 2020.

Personal life and education

César Duarte Jáquez was born in Hidalgo de Parral, Chihuahua, in April 1963. He studied at the

Universidad del Valle de México The Universidad del Valle de México (UVM) is a private university founded in 1960 and one of the largest university systems in Mexico. The school enrolls more than 120,000 students, and has approximately 11,900 faculty members and 6,900 staff ...

and became a lawyer.

Career

Duarte Jáquez joined the

(PRI) in 1977 and became a municipal and state advisor to PRI. He became general secretary and president of the municipality of Hidalgo del Parral. He became head of the (National Farmers' Confederation) of Chihuahua and secretary of the organization's executive board. Duarte Jáquez went on to become an at-large deputy in the

Congress of Chihuahua The Congress of the State of Chihuahua () is the legislative branch of the government of the State of Chihuahua. The Congress is the governmental deliberative body of Chihuahua, which is equal to, and independent of, the executive. The Congr ...

(September 1, 2000 – August 31, 2003), deputy from the 9th District (September 1, 2006 – August 31, 2009), and president of the Chamber of Deputies (September 1, 2008 – August 31, 2009). He was

from October 4, 2010, to October 3, 2016, after which he was accused of

peculation Embezzlement (from Anglo-Norman, from Old French ''besillier'' ("to torment, etc."), of unknown origin) is a type of financial crime, usually involving theft of money from a business or employer. It often involves a trusted individual taking ...

of MXN $275 million. He was expelled from PRI in January

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. His government investigated the 2013 Chihuahua monster truck accident.

Accusations

Duarte Jáquez is accused of owning 50 different properties possibly acquired with public monies, with a value of US$200 million, in the United States. This is in addition to the 21 pieces of property—ranches, cattle, and machinery worth between MXN $1 billion and $1.2 billion—already seized in Mexico. The total fraud may amount to MXN $6 billion (US$267,500,000). As of January 21, 2021, Duarte was being held in a prison in the U.S. state of Florida. Authorities and politicians (primarily members of the National Action Party in Chihuahua) would like to see him tried locally, particularly in light of accusations by Duarte's former Treasury Secretary, Jaime Herrera, revealed that he was personally responsible for handing out bribes to PRI loyalists.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duarte Jimenez, Cesar Horacio 1963 births Deputies of the LVIII Legislature of Mexico Living people Institutional Revolutionary Party politicians Governors of Chihuahua (state) Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico) Mexican politicians convicted of crimes Fugitives wanted by Mexico Politicians from Chihuahua (state) People from Parral, Chihuahua Universidad del Valle de México alumni