Arturo Montiel

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Arturo Montiel

Arturo Montiel Rojas (b. October 15, 1943 in Atlacomulco, State of México) is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He is a former governor of the State of México and a former federal deputy.

Montiel is the son of Gregorio Montiel Monroy and Delia Rojas García. He received bachelor's degrees in public administration and accountancy from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1970. He married Maude Versini in 2002, a French journalist 31 years younger than him. They divorced in September 2007.

As a politician, he has been the mayor of Naucalpan and director of civil protection at the federal Ministry of the Interior. At the state level he has been secretary of economic development and has presided twice over the local branch of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

In 1999, during his gubernatorial campaign for the State of Mexico, he portrayed himself as a tough-on-crime candidate, using a series of controversial radio spots in which he implied that criminals did not deserve human rights protection, saying "human rights are for humans, not for rats" ("rat" being common slang for "thief"). He won the election by simple majority and served from 1999 until 2005.

On August 4, 2005, he as elected as candidate of Unidad Democrática, a political group challenging former PRI leader Roberto Madrazo for the party's candidacy for the 2006 presidential election. However, in a press conference held on October 20, he announced that he would no longer be seeking his party's nomination because of accusations levelled at him and his family in the media, which include the property of several luxury apartments and mansions in Mexico and France.

As of mid-January 2006, he has been acquitted of corruption charges, despite strong evidence against him.

Strong evidence suggests that Mr. Montiel and his sons created a personal fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars by corrupt and illegal means, such as use of public funds for private purposes, and influeces traffic. Mr. Montiel charges have been systematically unrecognized by the government of his predecesor, whom Mr. Montiel designated.