Three centers dedicated to the nutrition and education of economically disadvantaged children that operated under the banner of famed Mexican soccer player Rafael Marquez have shut their doors, much to the dismay of many parents.
The closures come after the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) named Marquez as a front man for Raul Flores Hernandez, an alleged drug trafficking kingpin.
The Fundación Rafael Márquez Fútbol y Corazón A.C. ran three centers in Tonala and El Salto in Jalisco, and Zamora in Michoacan, attending to around 1,000 children aged between three and 16. Each day, children enrolled in the program were able to eat a fully balanced meal for just five pesos, as well as receive additional nutritional and medical care. The centers also organized extra-curricular educational and sports activities for the children.
U.S. authorities allege that the charity was one of several enterprises linked to Marquez that Flores Hernandez used to launder profits from his narcotics empire.
The foundation has received donations from a wide range of sources since opening in 2006, including the Jalisco state government.
The foundation’s website has subsequently gone offline, and Marquez has shut down all of his own social media feeds.
Marquez, 36, who plays and captains the Atlas soccer team in Guadalajara (as well as the national team), has taken a leave of absence from his club and country to confront the allegations and try to clear his name.
Despite being named on the OAFC blacklist, Marquez faces no criminal charges in either the United States or Mexico. However, all of his assets in the United States – and some in Mexico, according to a few reports – have been frozen. A number of Marquez’s businesses in this country are under investigation by federal authorities, it is understood.
According to some newspaper reports, Flores Hernandez – currently in custody in Mexico City – made it known through his lawyers that Marquez knew nothing about his financial dealings.
Lawyers for Marquez say the soccer star’s interactions took place only with Flores Hernandez’s son, who was not named in the OAFC list.
Nine other people, most of them from Jalisco, cited by the OAFC as having laundered money for Flores Hernandez have filed amparos, legal injunctions that may keep them from going to jail should they be served with arrest warrants issued by Mexican authorities.