In a rather bizarre story, former Mexican National Team striker Cuauhtemoc Blanco has denied allegations that he hired an assassin to murder a local businessman.
Blanco is currently mayor of Cuernavaca, about an hour south of Mexico City, but he used to play for the Mexican National Team and had a 25 year career with 11 different teams. His notable stints were a 15 year stint at Club America and three years with the Chicago Fire. Blanco scored 217 club goals and 39 international goals for Mexico.
Blanco became mayor of the 350,000 population town in 2015 after a recount election as a member of the Social Democratic Party. Blanco was winding up his soccer career and looked to politics as he was in his early 40’s.
It is alleged that Blanco put out a hit for local businessman Juan Manuel Garcia Bejarano. Bejarano was shot and killed April 6 in broad daylight and in public as he was riding a horse in the Cuernavaca Fair.
José Fierro Escobar would be arrested and charged with murder but almost immediately, Escobar told authorities he was being paid off by two men and Blanco was one of them, for reasons we apparently still don’t know yet.
Even though he denies the allegations, Blanco has become largely hidden from public eye since the murder, coming out when absolutely needed. Blanco is claiming that he is being framed by the governor of the state Blanco’s town is in because Blanco had been thinking of running for that governor position in the future. He also claimed that the fair in his town was controlled by organized crime and he fears for he and his family in staying alive because of what’s happened.
Despite all that, Blanco is not stepping down for the investigation. He apparently wants to keep working in a limited capacity. Not sure how Blanco can be effective if he’s not only is being investigated but if he’s telling the truth, that people are trying to kill him.
[Yahoo/Photo: Jam Media/LatinContent/Getty Images]
