Businessman claims he was kidnapped for exposing government corruption

Alfredo Romero led a march through Guadalajara last week to mark six months since 43 students disappeared at the hands of corrupt police officers in Guerrero.

In a video interview posted on YouTube this week, Mexican businessman Alfredo Romero said he was kidnapped for five weeks for planning to denounce corruption by Aristóteles Sandoval, the governor of the western state of Jalisco.

Romero told Luke Rudkowski, a journalist from the grassroots media outlet We Are Change, that he uncovered evidence of corruption when he was working for an Italian construction firm in Jalisco.

Romero claimed to have seen documents that showed that Sandoval had falsified expenses and embezzled public funds during his time as mayor of Guadalajara, Mexico’s second biggest city and the capital of Jalisco state.

Romero said he saw receipts that revealed that Sandoval spent just 120,000 pesos ($7,900) on renovating the Minerva fountain, one of Guadalajara’s most iconic landmarks, in 2011, despite claiming to have spent 1.2 million pesos ($79,000), ten times the actual amount.

The remaining 1.08 million pesos of public money went into the funds for Sandoval’s campaign in the gubernatorial election, Romero alleged.

He also claimed to have read an email to the construction company in which Sandoval offered them a highly coveted contract to develop the Creative Digital City, a major development plan that aims to transform Guadalajara’s historic city center into a hub for digital media firms.

Sandoval allegedly offered to sell the contract to the firm for $15 million. Romero said this was completely illegal because public contracts are supposed to be granted through an open bidding process and the governor is not meant to be involved in this process…

Click here to read this story in full at Latin Correspondent.