Jorge Hank Rhon | |
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19th Municipal president of Tijuana | |
In office 2004–2007 | |
Preceded by | Joséde Jesús González Reyes |
Succeeded by | Kurt Honold |
Personal details | |
Born | [1] Toluca,Estado de México | January 28,1956
Political party | PRI |
Spouse(s) | María Elvia Amaya (m. 2004;div. 2007) Carolina Kabande (m. 2018) |
Children | Nirvana Hank Tigre Hank Contents |
Residence(s) | Tijuana,Baja California |
Jorge Hank Rhon (born January 28,1956) is a Mexican businessman and owner of Mexico's largest sports betting company,Grupo Caliente. He served from December 2004 to February 2007 as the president of the municipality of Tijuana. He is the son of former Mexico City mayor Carlos Hank González and Guadalupe Rhon. The Hank family has alleged links to drug trafficking. He has been accused of money laundering, [2] murder, [3] arrested for possession of unlicensed arms [4] and dealing in the trade of exotic animals. [5] [6] [7] [8]
Of German descent, [9] Jorge Hank Rhon studied at the Alexander von Humboldt German College and Industrial Engineering at the Universidad Anáhuac in the State of Mexico. In 1980 he founded the Grupo Taos,a company that operates pet stores and amusement parks of which he is the president of the board and general director. He moved to Tijuana in 1985 to manage the Agua Caliente Racetrack and formed the Grupo Caliente which includes the dog racing track,a hotel,a mall and a network of entertainment centers in 19 states of Mexico as well as 13 countries of Central,South America and Europe. The number of employees of the racetrack grew from 700 to close to 6,000. During his management Tijuana has hosted the Señorita México pageant,the World Boxing title fight between Julio César Chávez and Danilo Cabrera and from 1986 to 1988 the Caribe International Classic Horserace,considered the most important in Latin America. The Racetrack also hosts the Day of the Three Wise Men,Children's Day,Mother's Day where thousands of children and their mothers receive free food,gifts and an entertainment show since 1988. Hank also created the Cuauhtémoc Hank Foundation to give scholarships to students of all grades including studies in foreign schools. [10] On April 20,1988,a local newspaper columnist,Hector "El Gato" Félix Miranda was assassinated on his way to work. The gunmen turned out to be security guards at the Caliente track,and one had worked as well for Hank Rhon's father,Carlos Hank Gonzalez. To this day the independent news weekly in Tijuana,ZETA,runs a full page ad with white letters:"Jorge Hank:Why did your bodyguards assassinate me?" 'El Gato' had been a fierce critic of the Hank family. [11]
Hank Rhon is the owner of casinos and soccer teams. He is a lover of exotic animals and the father of 23 children,some of whom are named after animals. [12]
As a candidate for mayor of Tijuana in 2004,Hank said,“Mi animal preferido sigue siendo la mujer”. ("My favorite animal is still the woman.") [12]
Hank won the mayoral race that year,beating PAN candidate Jorge Ramos by a slim margin,thus ending 15 years of PAN government in Tijuana.
The most notable infrastructure improvement in Tijuana during the Hank administration was the multi-million investment on an underpass at the Alba Roja intersection,just south of the 5 y 10 intersection. The 5 y 10 intersection is one of the most famous in the city and with the heaviest traffic. The investment was for a figure close to 45 million pesos,more than four million dollars. [13]
On February 8,2005,the Hank administration inaugurated the five million pesos [14] Center of Communication,Control,Computing and Command (C4) that included 60 high definition cameras. [15] In order the reduce kidnappings,a problem of Tijuana for many years,the municipal government started a program of installing GPS devices on the cars of potential victims. [16] In 2007,a program of road safety cameras was introduced in Tijuana that issued speeding tickets in which some drivers received up to 800 tickets issued the same day,same time,and on the same location. [17]
The Hank administration produced significant urban development but failed to significantly reduce crime [18] In 2007,the Operation Tijuana of the Federal Government only momentarily reduced serious crimes and ordinary crimes increased 40% [19] and it was detected corruption amongst the federal forces. [20] The operation was then extended to the five municipalities of the state and dubbed Operation Baja California,per request of the governor Eugenio Elorduy Walther. [21]
On February 20,2007,Hank requested a license to leave his post as mayor. The license was approved by nine PRI representatives with six PAN representatives rejecting the license and one PRD representative abstaining from voting. [22] Multiple billboards reporting Hank actions as mayor were put out after the annual report and PAN representative complained and offered to remove the PAN-sponsored radio spots on fighting radar camera-issued tickets. [23]
At the end of 2006,Jorge Hank expressed his wishes to run a campaign for the 2007 Baja California state election. This flared up comments from PAN politicians [24] saying that he would be violating the state's Antichapulin ("anti-grasshopper") law which prohibits a person of public office to "jump" from one charge to another without ending their current term.
In February 2007,he requested permission to leave his post as municipal president and accept the candidacy for governor by the Alianza para que vivas mejor (The Alliance So You May live better),which was approved by his party's regidores and denied by the PAN regidores. The PAN also accused five district electoral council members of partiality toward Hank because they served as judges during his administration as president of Tijuana. The Federal Electoral Tribune rejected the complaint determining that the law does not have such restriction that would prevent these five lawyers from serving as judges and then as council members. [25]
On June 20,2007,Baja California's state elections court voted 2 to 1 in favor of the validity of the so-called "anti-grasshopper law" thus cancelling Hank's bid for governor. He appealed the decision before the Federal Electoral Tribunal,which unanimously upheld his candidacy on July 7,holding the state law contravened the electoral and political rights of the citizenry. Pending that decision,Hank was not a registered candidate and had to abstain from campaigning. The election date was on August 5,2007.
According to the Baja California's State Electoral Institute,Jorge Hank lost the election by 8 points (almost 55,000 votes) to Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millan,PAN's candidate.
Alfredo Ferreiro Velasco,leader of PES announced on January 26,2021,that Jorge Hank Rhon would be its candidate for governor in 2021. [26] As a candidate for governor,Hank Rhon said of women “[S]e les ha bajado un poquito la inteligencia” ("Their intelligence has lowered a little"). [12]
Baja California,officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California,is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952,the area was known as the North Territory of Baja California. It has an area of 70,113 km2 (27,071 sq mi) and comprises the northern half of the Baja California peninsula,north of the 28th parallel,plus oceanic Guadalupe Island. The mainland portion of the state is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean;on the east by Sonora,the U.S. state of Arizona,and the Gulf of California;on the north by the U.S. state of California;and on the south by Baja California Sur.
María de Guadalupe "Lupita" Jones Garay is a Mexican actress,model,producer and beauty queen who was crowned Miss Universe 1991. She was the first Mexican contestant to win a major international beauty pageant,though two more Mexican women have been crowned Miss Universe since Jones' win.
Zeta is a Mexican magazine published every Friday in Tijuana by Choix Editores. Zeta is distributed primarily in Baja California,in the cities of Tijuana,Tecate,Rosarito,Ensenada,and Mexicali.
Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente,commonly known as Tijuana,or simply as Xolos,is a Mexican professional football club based in Tijuana,Baja California,that competes in Liga MX. The team plays its home games at Estadio Caliente. The club was founded on 14 January 2007;its badge is the founder's hairless Xoloitzcuintle,Hermoso.
Wirt G. Bowman was an American self-described capitalist. He was also an entrepreneur,speculator,casino owner,and one of the founders of the Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel in Tijuana,Baja California,Mexico.
The Caliente Hipódromo,formerly named the Agua Caliente Racetrack and the Agua Caliente Casino and Resort,is a resort and casino that formerly included a greyhound racing and horse racing track in Tijuana,Baja California,Mexico. The racetrack opened in December 1929 at a cost of $2.5 million,while the adjacent Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel had opened in June 1928,later going defunct in 1935.
J. Jesús Blancornelas was a Mexican journalist who co-founded the Tijuana-based Zeta magazine,known for its reporting on corruption and drug trafficking. His work encompassed an extensive research on how the drug industry influences local leaders and the police in the Mexican state of Baja California –topics frequently avoided by the rest of the Mexican media.
Local elections were held in the Mexican State of Baja California on Sunday,August 5,2007. According to the preliminary results program,JoséGuadalupe Osuna Millán of the Alliance for Baja California (APBC) was elected governor by a 7% margin over candidate Jorge Hank Rohn of the Alliance for a Better Life (APVM). Results for APBC in municipalities and congressional seats were better than expected including victory for mayor of Tijuana which Jorge Hank Rohn's occupied previous to the electoral campaign.
Fernando Jorge "El Diablo" Castro Trenti is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served in the LX and the LXI Legislatures as senator representing the State of Baja California.
JoséGuadalupe Osuna Millán is a Mexican economist and politician member of the National Action Party (PAN) who served as Governor of Baja California.
Operation Tijuana or Operation Baja California of the Government of Mexico is taking place in Tijuana and the surrounding areas of Baja California and Baja California Sur. This operation is part of the Joint Operation Against Drug Trafficking.
Estadio Caliente is a multi-purpose stadium in Tijuana,Baja California,Mexico,located across the Tijuana River from the Mexico–United States border. It is the home of Club Tijuana of Liga MX. The stadium is also home of Galgos de Tijuana of the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (LFA).
Jorge Ramos Hernández is a Mexican politician from the National Action Party. He currently serves as a deputy representing the fourth federal electoral district of Baja California in the LXIII Legislature of the Mexican Congress.
Adela Navarro Bello is a Mexican journalist and the general director of the Tijuana weekly magazine Zeta. Zeta,which was founded in 1980,is one of the few publications that frequently reports on organized crime,drug trafficking,and corruption in Mexico's border cities. Multiple editors and reporters working for Zeta have been murdered,including Héctor Félix Miranda,co-founder of Zeta,and co-editor Francisco Ortiz Franco.
Héctor Félix Miranda was a Mexican journalist and columnist of the Tijuana-based Zeta magazine,which reported on corruption and drug trafficking. In the late 1970s,he began to work for the daily newspaper ABC under Jesús Blancornelas and wrote under the name "Félix el Gato" to criticize local politicians. These columns eventually angered Baja California's state government and Mexico's former President JoséLópez Portillo to the point that the government ordered Blancornelas to fire Félix and banned its distribution. When Blancornelas refused,a SWAT team was sent to take over the paper's offices on the pretext of settling a labor dispute.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Tijuana,Baja California,Mexico.
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Gastón Luken Garza is a Mexican entrepreneur and politician. He has been president of the State Electoral Institute of Baja California,comptroller general of the government of Mexico City,citizen advisor for the Federal Electoral Institute and congressmen for the National Action Party (PAN) in the LXI Legislature of the Mexican Congress. In 2016,he was the first independent candidate to run for mayor of Tijuana.
Grupo Caliente is one of the largest sports betting company in Mexico. In 2021 Grupo Caliente owned around 200 "off-track betting and bookmaking outlets" in Mexico,Austria,Brazil,Ecuador,Panama,Paraguay,Peru,Uruguay,Venezuela and the Caribbean. Business divisions of Grupo Caliente include Globalsat,Caliente Estadio,Caliente Online,and Caliente Casino. Owned Caliente Baja California,Caliente Casino is a chain of casinos operating mainly in the state of Baja California,Mexico,where it is the exclusive operator of casinos in Tijuana.
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