Former election opponent of Mexico’s president flees country

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican politician who was one of several unsuccessful aspirants for the presidency in the 2018 elections has fled the country, claiming that charges against him are politically motivated. Ricardo Anaya was the candidate for the conservative National Action Party and he said in a social media video that he was leaving Mexico. Anaya did not say where he was going, but said he feared being jailed for 30 years on the charges. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has never liked Anaya much, but he denied Monday that the charges are a political vendetta. The president says the charges stem from accusations of vote-buying by a former official.