Eugenio Elorduy Walther

Eugenio Elorduy Walther (November 21, 1940 – September 23, 2023) was a Mexican politician. He was governor of his adoptive state of Baja California from November 1, 2001 to October 31, 2007. His wife Maria Elena Blackaller served as first lady and had 4 children with Eugenio. Mariela, Erika, Eugenio, and Ernesto continue to carry out his remembrance today.

Biography
Elorduy graduated with honours from the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in Business Administration in 1965. He became a member of the Partido Acción Nacional three years later and was elected as a council member in 1968 and state congressman in 1974. He was the Secretary of Finance under Ernesto Ruffo's administration (1989–1995). He was elected as president of the municipality of Mexicali for the 1995-1998 term for the National Action Party (PAN). He was elected on July 8, 2001 as governor of his state representing the PAN (in alliance with the Green Party of Mexico). Walther died on September 23, 2023, at the age of 82.

Governorship of Baja California
In 2007 Elorduy was accused by some members of his party of supporting the primary candidacy of José Guadalupe Osuna; to this he declared that the PAN party would keep the governorship in the next six years.

Organized crime
During the government of Ernesto Ruffo (1989–1995), Elorduy paid 150,000 pesos (roughly 50,000 US dollars) of state funds to bail out Sergio Ortiz Lara when he was accused in 1994 of collaborating with drug dealers.

In a video released by the Zeta weekly, a former commander of the state police accused Antonio Martínez Luna, Baja California's Attorney General, and other members of public security of being involved in activities regarding drug trafficking, homicide, kidnapping, disappearing and hiding of dead bodies, and accepting bribes.

In 2001, Antonio Carmona, Elorduy's chief of police during his mayorship of Mexicali, was sentenced to 36 years of jail for contributing to drug-dealing and organized crime.