Would-Be Mario Villanueva

The PRD candidate for the governor's post in Quintana Roo, Greg Sánchez, was arrested by the PGR earlier this week for suspected involvement with money laundering and, as we learned today, murder. The PGR says that Sánchez was interrogated earlier this month, and his declaration of income was about a million dollars short of what the authorities say he withdrew from bank accounts. Jesús Ortega immediately compared the arrest to the detentions of dozens of public figures (many of them perredistas) in Michoacán last May, which is a logical comparison for him to make, although one would think that even if you believe the michoacanazo was entirely a political operation, the electoral alliances between the PAN and the PRD this year would discourage a repeat. Then again, the PGR is run Arturo Chávez Chávez, who is said to be close to Fernando Gómez Mont, who had a famously unflattering opinion of the PRD alliances. In any event, the PRD knew that Sánchez was under investigation in January, before he was selected as the candidate. Since even under these circumstances the PRD allowed him to run, that makes you suspect that either Ortega and other party leaders made a horrible decision, or that PGR investigations into potential candidates are so frequent that no one sees it as a disqualifying characteristic. Hopefully it's the former.