Ex-Mexico Official Sought in Theft Case Is Believed to Be in San Diego

A former governor of Baja California Sur, wanted by Mexican authorities on embezzlement charges, apparently has fled to San Diego.

But law enforcement officials in the United States have not yet been asked to hunt for Guillermo Mercado. The member of the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party is accused, with 18 other former officials, of diverting $55 million in public funds before leaving office last year.

Authorities in Baja California Sur, which occupies the southern half of the Baja peninsula, announced arrest warrants this week for the former officials, two of whom already are in custody in Mexico.

Suspicions that Mercado had fled across the border came to light Tuesday, when a Mexican radio station aired what it said was a taped telephone conversation with Mercado at his home in San Diego. In the tape, played on a Mexican television network, the man identified as Mercado refused to comment on charges that he had taken part in diversion of public money during his six-year term.

Mercado and his wife bought a condominium north of downtown San Diego in 1994 for $260,000, according to San Diego County property records. The next year, Mercado transferred full ownership to his wife, Concepcion Casas, according to the records.

A man answering the intercom at the apartment Wednesday initially identified himself as Mercado but, after being told he was speaking to a reporter, said he was a relative. The man said Mercado had arrived in San Diego a day earlier but had left for Los Angeles for an indefinite period. “ We have no information” on Mercado’s whereabouts, he said, before cutting short the conversation.

The ex-governor’s lawyer told reporters that his client is not a fugitive because Mercado was away when the Mexican arrest warrant was issued. Attorney Jesus Ramirez did not say where Mercado was.

Authorities in the United States have no role in the Baja investigation unless a warrant for Mercado’s arrest is issued by a U.S. court at the request of Mexican diplomats. “Any time Mexican law enforcement asks for our assistance, we are more than happy to oblige. But we would require a request from them,” said Jan Caldwell, FBI spokeswoman in San Diego.

The diplomatic process for gaining such a warrant, which is time-consuming under ordinary circumstances, could be delayed further as a result of the wholesale change in Mexico’s government. President-elect Vicente Fox and the nation’s first opposition administration in modern times take over today.

A representative of the Mexican federal attorney general’s office in San Diego said it was unclear whether authorities in Baja California Sur had taken the key first step of asking the Mexican government to pursue Mercado’s extradition.