Intelligence agent-turned-pimp, linked to Argentina's Macri, arrested in Mexico
Raúl Martins, a former Argentine intelligence agent and owner of numerous brothels in Argentina and Mexico, was arrested at the Cancún Airport pursuant to an international arrest warrant.
Martins, 71, had been convicted in July by Argentine Federal Judge María Servini de Cubría on prostitution, illicit association, and money laundering charges - charges upheld by an appellate court on September 3.
The current investigation began after his estranged daughter, Lorena Martins, filed a criminal complaint against him in 2012.
She alleged that her father, who served in the then-State Intelligence Service (SIDE) from 1985 to 2000 and who fled to Mexico in 2002, was a supporter and contributor to the 2015 campaign of current President Mauricio Macri - an allegation she corroborated with a copy of an e-mail.
"I was surprised by the arrest warrant against my father," she said last month. "I think they will kill him before he goes to prison. My father has tapes of judges and politicians inside his brothels. Many are very worried."
Mixing it up
Macri had been photographed during his 2010 honeymoon with his third wife, First Lady Juliana Awada, in Martins' Mix Sky Lounge in Cancún, Mexico - closed by Mexican authorities for prostitution in 2012 but reopened shortly afterward.
They are seen in the photo with Gabriel Conde, who likewise fled Argentina in 1998 on prostitution charges - and who became a business partner of Raúl Martins.
Macri denied any links to Martins or Conde when the photo emerged in January 2012. But Conde's father, Luis Conde, was vice president of the Boca Juniors football club when Macri served as club president from 1995 to 2007.
Macri launched his campaign for club president in 'Shampoo' - the club owned by Gabriel Conde, whose 1998 police raid led to his becoming a fugitive.
According to Daniel Schnitman, head of the anti-human trafficking NGO Alerta Vida, "Macri and Martins have known each other for 20 years."
"People voted for a president with 6 police files for sexual exploitation. It's shameful; they don't know he is."
Records show Martins was last in Argentina between June 2017 and February 2018 despite an arrest warrant against him.
Another prominent Macri backer, Ismael "Peque" García, was likewise arrested this January on prostitution charges stemming from the 2016 death of a minor.
García was a major bundler for Macri's right-wing "Let's Change" coalition, and was on stage during his 2015 victory celebration.
Macri is currently running for re-election amid the most serious economic crisis in the country in two decades; he trails his opponent, Alberto Fernández, by around 20 points in most polls.
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Macri and First Lady Juliana Awada (middle) during their 2010 Cancún honeymoon in Raúl Martins' Mix Sky Lounge. Martins' business partner and fellow Argentine fugitive on prostitution charges, Gabriel Conde, is beside Macri.
Martins is the figure at left; his former State Intelligence colleague and, according to Martins' daughter, silent partner, Antonio Stuisso, at right.
Martins' arrest, and his likely extradition to Argentina, has become an unexpected political headache for Macri, who is running for re-election amid the worst recession in two decades.
