UNDER DRUG PROBE, MEXICAN GOVERNOR DISAPPEARS

MEXICO CITY, March 31 (Reuters) - A Mexican state governor under
investigation for drug trafficking has disappeared just days before his
six-year term is to run out, raising speculation he may have fled into
hiding to avoid arrest.

Gov. Mario Villanueva of Quintana Roo, the Yucatan peninsula state that is
home to the famed Caribbean resort of Cancun, missed a scheduled appearance
before anti-drug authorities in Mexico City on Tuesday.

He was due to answer questions from Mexican anti-drug czar Mariano Herran
Salvatti and to inspect files in the case against him, officials said.
Villanueva never showed up, instead sending a letter restating his previous
denials of wrongdoing.

Neither state nor federal officials could confirm Villanueva's whereabouts
on Wednesday.

"We know nothing," Jorge Carrillo, a journalist for the state-run radio and
television network in Quintana Roo, told Reuters on Wednesday. "The only
information we had is that he left for Mexico City on Saturday to prepare
for his defence."

A secretary in Villanueva's office could provide no information on where the
governor might be.

The second-ranking official in Quintana Roo, Raul Santana, told the daily
newspaper El Universal, "If anybody knows where the governor is, please tell
me."

Villanueva publicly had sought the meeting with anti-drug officials in a bid
to clear his name. The meeting had been postponed and rescheduled twice
before the parties settled on Tuesday.

"He did not show up even though he signalled to us he would do so," Herran
Salvatti, the anti-drug czar, told reporters. "He himself is rendering
hollow his announcement that he would offer proof in his defence."

Officials say openly that Villanueva, of the ruling Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI), is under investigation for suspected ties to the
illegal narcotics trade. His state has a long and deserted coastline near
the midpoint of a straight line from Colombia to the United States.

While steadfastly maintaining his innocence, the governor himself revealed
earlier this month that he is specifically accused of allowing drug
traffickers to use a state-owned airplane hangar to load and unload drugs,
of maintaining close ties with drug lords and of being a cocaine user
himself.

Because Mexican law makes prosecuting a sitting governor difficult, Mexican
media have speculated that Villanueva might be arrested after Monday, when
he is due to hand over office to Gov.-elect Joaquin Hendricks, also of the
PRI, who won the Feb. 21 election.