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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2007 
Colorful Tijuana Mayor in Mexico Race
 Traci Carl - Associated Press
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| | Jorge Hank Rhon, candidate for governor of the Mexican state of Baja California, shows an unidentified child his three-finger campaign salute during a campaign closing rally in Tijuana, northern Mexico, Tuesday, July 31, 2007. Hank, allied of the PRI political party, is running a highly charged race against Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millan from the PAN political party. The concert style event, drew approximately 60,000 people to Hank's racetrack and featured several popular musical groups, as well as beer and food. (AP Photo/David Maung) |
Tijuana, Mexico - Jorge Hank Rhon brags about drinking tequila mixed with bear bile and steeped with the penises of tigers, lions and dogs. He has weathered allegations of ties to drug trafficking, money laundering and murder-for-hire.
But none of that seemed to matter to his supporters as the self-proclaimed billionaire dog-track owner and Tijuana mayor closed his campaign for governor of Mexico's Baja California state this week.
Most polls give a slight advantage to his main opponent, Jose Guadalupe Osuna, 51, of President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party, whose gubernatorial victory 18 years ago in Baja was the beginning of the end for the Institutional Revolutionary Party's 71-year hold on the presidency.
But Hank Rhon — who keeps a private zoo with 20,000 animals, five times more than the famous San Diego Zoo across the border — loves a good fight, and has overcome much bigger obstacles. The son of a PRI party boss, he overcame a double-digit deficit in the opinion polls to become Tijuana's mayor three years ago, despite claiming during the campaign that "women" were his favorite animals.
He brushes aside accusations of corruption, saying his opponents just want to "promote chaos, distrust, fear and uncertainty, so that we won't vote."
When Mexico's Reforma newspaper reported Tuesday that Tijuana police officers were secretly taped tipping off the Arellano Felix drug gang about federal investigations, Hank Rhon said he stood behind his men and claimed the report was planted to help his opponent.
The federal Attorney General's office confirmed that the tapes were part of a 2004 preliminary investigation into ties between police and drug traffickers, but investigators have been unable to positively identify the voices.
Earlier U.S. suggestions of links between Hank Rhon and drug traffickers didn't stick either — while a 1999 report by the U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center singled him out as an associate of drug smugglers, then-Attorney General Janet Reno called the report incomplete and said its conclusions were "never adopted as official view."
Hank Rhon built a faithful following in this gritty border city as mayor with roundups of petty thieves, programs to keep kids in school and huge street parties to celebrate Mothers' Day and Children's Day.
But his "open door" Tuesdays really got people's attention. Each week, he became a sort of political Santa Claus, meeting privately with anyone who lined up, and often giving them cash or even homes. It's hard to find a Tijuana resident who doesn't know someone who has received something — a wheelchair, a job — from Hank Rhon.
Maria Elena Romero, a 47-year-old maid who struggles to support herself and two children on $200 a month, remembers how Hank Rhon gave her $46 two years ago to help pay her rent.
"If he wins, I'm going to ask him for a monthly stipend," she said as her two teenagers fought through a crowd for free campaign T-shirts, baseball caps and bottled water emblazoned with Hank Rhon's photo being handed out Tuesday from trucks at the closing campaign rally.
Hank Rhon's opponents say such handouts are a return to the dark days of Mexican politics under the PRI, which often bought elections, sometimes for nothing more than square meals for hungry supporters.
Some fear violence Sunday. Before a televised debate in July, hundreds of Hank Rhon and Osuna supporters clashed, exchanging punches and throwing rocks. Two people were injured.
Osuna urged his supporters to make sure the election stays clean — "Take your photo and video cameras wherever you can, to defend the vote," he said.
Abram Perez, a 22-year-old law student, was ready to do just that.
"He's power hungry, a very ambitious person," Perez said before joining a group of Osuna volunteers doing last-minute campaigning. "Everyone knows the truth, what kind of person he is."
Hank Rhon is open about his eccentricities. He even touts his tequila concoction on the campaign trail.
"It gives you an impressive amount of energy," he says. "It tastes like tequila, but smoother."
Hank Rhon's supporters seem unconcerned about what he drinks, or that one of his bodyguards was convicted in the 1988 murder of Tijuana columnist Hector Felix. Felix's investigative weekly Zeta still calls on Hank Rhon to explain the killing, but Hank Rhon denies any involvement and was never formally linked to the crime.
Hank Rhon, the father of 19 children with several different women, says he is too rich to be corrupt.
"I don't put anything in my pockets — I take it out," he said. "I have a really big business ... and with that money I support myself, my wife, my kids and grandkids." |
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