Mexican rebel groups distances itself from disappearance of ex-candidate

MEXICO CITY – MEXICO CITY (AP) — Authorities said Monday there is no evidence any armed group is behind the disappearance of a former presidential candidate, and Mexico' most active guerrilla group said it does not know what happened to him.

Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, 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.

Since then, authorities say no one has contacted them or the politician's family. Suspicion has focused on the possibility it was a kidnapping for ransom, an attack by drug cartels or an assault by political or personal rivals.

In a statement posted Monday on a website that has historically carried its communiques, the leftist People's Revolutionary Army, or EPR, said it shared the pain of Fernandez de Cevallos' family because its own activists have been kidnapped.

"We do not know if his disappearance is for political motives, his inter-party disputes, or because of the social breakdown of this neoliberal government," the EPR statement read. "The disappearance ... is regrettable, whatever its reason or motive, it is a painful event for the family, a pain we are familiar with."

The statement did not explicitly say the rebels played no role in his disappearance.

Mexico's leftist rebel groups claimed responsibility for kidnapping business and political figures in the 1990s. The EPR is best known for the 2007 bombings of oil pipelines, attacks that the group said were aimed at making the government hand over two rebels who had disappeared.

In a statement read to local media by one of Fernandez de Cevallos's associates, his family appeared to follow the interpretation that he may have been kidnapped for ransom.

"The family calls on those people who are holding Diego Fernandez de Cevallos to communicate with them, in order to negotiate his release," according to the statement read by lawyer and former attorney general Antonio Lozano Gracia.

In a statement Monday, the Attorney General's Office said no one had contacted the family or authorities, adding there were no indications an armed group was behind his disappearance.

Fernandez de Cevallos, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 1994 on the ticket of Calderon's conservative National Action Party, disappeared at his ranch in the central state of Queretaro.

The bearded, cigar-chomping politician known as "El Jefe Diego" — "Diego the Boss" — is an elder statesman for National Action.

He also is known for his brash, confrontational statements as he brushed off accusations of using his political ties to advance his practice as an attorney for some of Mexico's richest businesses. He represented companies that often won lucrative lawsuits against the government event as he served in Congress.

The disappearance comes amid a wave of drug violence that has killed more than 22,700 people since Calderon launched a crackdown against organized crime in December 2006. Drug traffickers are increasingly attacking political and government leaders in retaliation.

Last week, gunmen burst into the farm supplies business of mayoral candidate Jose Guajardo Varela and killed him and his son, after he ignored warnings to drop out of the race in Valle Hermoso, 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Brownsville, Texas.