Mario Ernesto Villanueva Madrid, aka "El Chueco", is a Mexican politician who built an important political career within the ranks of Partido Revolucionario Institucional. From 1993 to 1999 he served as the fourth governor of the state of Quintana Roo. Accused of drug trafficking at the end of his gubernatorial period, he did not arrive at the ceremony at which he was to hand the office over to his elected successor, Joaquín Hendricks Díaz, and remained a fugitive from justice for two years. He served a six-year prison sentence and was extradited to the United States on 8 May 2010.
Professional and political career
Born in Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Villanueva studied agronomy at the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua. He was elected presidente municipal of Benito Juárez, Quintana Roo, in 1990 but resigned that position the year later to fight a seat representing Quintana Roo in the federal Senate. He resigned as senator to run for governor of the state, to which he was elected in 1993.
Criminal charges accusing Villanueva of involvement in cocaine shipments passing through his state were filed while he was still serving as governor. Federal Assistant Attorney GeneralMariano Herrán interviewed him at the governor's mansion in Chetumal. Fearing that he would be arrested at the end of his governorship, when his immunity expired, he disappeared from public view two weeks before the hand-over date. He was arrested over two years later, on 24 May 2001, in a chance vehicle inspection near Cancún. He was convicted of money-laundering offences and spent six years in the Altiplano High-Security Prison in Almoloya de Juárez, Estado de México. He was released on 21 June 2007 but was immediately taken back into custody to face proceedings under an extradition request filed by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on charges related to cocaine trafficking. After a lengthy process that included the lodging of amparo constitutional relief remedies, the extradition request was granted by the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs on 7 November 2007. On 4 June 2008, while in custody awaiting extradition to the United States, a federal judge found him guilty of the original drug trafficking charges and extended his original six-year sentence to 36 years and 9 months in prison. On 8 May 2010 Villanueva was extradited to the United States. He was arraigned in a New York court and pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering charges. On 29 June 2013 Villanueva was sentenced in New York, United Statesto 11 years in prison after being accused of conspiring to import hundreds of tons of cocaine and launder millions of dollars in bribe payments. In 2012, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison but because he has been imprisoned since his 2001 arrest, he is expected to only serve three more years in prison. Starting in 2018, Villanueva was held prisoner in Chetumal, but on 24 December 2019, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador spoke about a pardon by the end of the year. Villanueva may be placed under house arrest until the pardon comes through. On the 10 June 2020, Villanueva was released from prison into house arrest.
