Proceso (10-3-2014)
By Jenaro Villamil, translated by un vato for Borderland Beat
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| PGR announces capture of "El H" |
MEXICO, D.F. (proceso.com.mx).- Hector Beltran Leyva infiltrated not only Queretaro society and that of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato; he also had a special relationship with the entertainment world, and especially with Televisa.
The key character in this relationship was Guillermo Francisco Ocana Prandal, better known as "Memo" Ocana, whom Mexican authorities arrested twice, as did Spanish authorities, on charges of laundering money for "El H" through businesses involved in entertainment.
Televisa soap operas were filmed on properties that "Memo" Ocana offered to Emilio Azcarraga Jean's [owner of Televisa] network and which belonged to the cartel of the Beltran Leyva brothers. It was on a property at Aureliano Rivera 17, in San Angel Inn, where 11 Beltran (Leyva) gunmen were arrested in 2008. That's where the series "Cadenas de Amargura" was recorded. In 2009, the soap opera "Rubi" was filmed on the Farallon 304 property, in Jardines de Pedregal, where a hit man for the Beltran brothers, Ever Villafana Martinez, was living.
The link between "Memo" Ocana, Beltran Leyva and Televisa is worthy of a soap opera script. Before the SIEDO, the former director and actor testified that he started his career as a child actor in 1968, and worked in illustrated novels such as "Cita y Chicas" in 1990. In the 1980's, he represented Ricardo Montaner, against whom he filed litigation.
Between 1993 and 1994 --the waning years of the Salinista administration-- "Memo" Ocana's future changed. He met Miss Sonora, Clara Elena Laborin Archuleta. She was the romantic partner of Hector Beltran Leyva. In 1997, she asked him to manage her business, Rotchen News and Entertainment. She wanted to launch a musical group made up of her four nephews. The group was called "Tequila Cuatro" and had only a brief existence.
The platform was supposed to be the Laborin magazine "Jeans", which only published 2 editions.
Ocana's contacts with the entertainment world allowed Beltran go into the entertainment industry as the representative for several singers and celebrities, among them Alejandra Guzman, Juan Gabriel and Tania Libertad.
The journal Reforma published that on June 18, 2010, Ocana organized a large party with more than 600 guests in Acapulco, in a spa belonging to Laborin, to collect funds in the fight against AIDS. Despite the fact that she was already suspected of having ties with the Beltran Leyvas, celebrities, among them the French ambassador, producers and singers, attended her party.
In 2002, Ocana went to Spain and lived there for a few years. There, he was a key operator in placing Monex as part of the Beltran Leyva structure and in creating phantom companies. The journalist Humberto Padgett, citing Spanish diplomatic sources, stated that Ocana formed corporations in Barcelona to "launder" more than 78 million euros that were subsequently transferred to three currency exchange enterprises: Monex Casa de Bolsa, Monex Divisa and Intercam (Emequis, July 29, 2012). The same companies that were mentioned in the "Monexgate" scandal in the presidential elections.
To accomplish his objectives in Spain, Ocana used the same model he used in Mexico; he set up a company, Tops Time Production, which also organized entertainment events.
In the final analysis, in the world of narco culture and big television, everything is just a big theater spectacle.
http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=383700