| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico 
Photo Circulating May Be Missing Political Leader
 Martha Mendoza - Associated Press
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May 21, 2010
 |  | Until now, federal officials have said they have no indication of his whereabouts. |  | | |
Mexico City — Photos of a blindfolded man circulating on the Internet appear to show a former presidential candidate missing since this weekend and feared kidnapped.
Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, 69, a leading figure in President Felipe Calderon's governing party, was reported missing over the weekend after his abandoned vehicle was found near his ranch with traces of blood found on a pair of scissors.
Photos that first appeared on Twitter late Thursday show a bare-chested, grim-faced, bearded man with a sheet of plastic in the background. The beard and shape of the face look like those of Fernandez de Cevallos, but the Federal Attorney General's office had not confirmed his identity Friday morning.
Medical experts interviewed on Milenio television said the man appeared to be alive.
Fernandez de Cevallos was the 1994 presidential candidate of the National Action Party, and while he finished second, his campaign helped lead to the party's victory in the 2000 election, ending 71 years of single-party domination in Mexico.
President Felipe Calderon has called him "a key politician in the Mexican transition to democracy" and he ordered federal authorities to help Queretaro state investigators in the search.
Fernandez de Cevallos had been an elder statesman for the party, a power broker who split his time between Mexico's Senate and his practice as an attorney for some of Mexico's richest businesses.
Until now, federal officials have said they have no indication of his whereabouts.
"It's a mystery now. Of course, for me, it's very important to preserve the confidence on the privacy of this investigation," Calderon said during a CNN interview this week in Washington. "We will find Diego and, of course, we are working with all the resources we have to find him."
Calderon told CNN he did not think Fernandez de Cevallos had been taken by drug gangs trying to send the president a message.
"No, the criminals used to send me a very clear message in another way. I think it's a very sensitive case," he said.
Then, gazing at a photo of a younger, healthy Fernandez de Cavallos, Calderon added: "It's very tough for me, of course, because Diego is a very good friend of mine. A very good friend."
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