A court in Mexico also fined Javier Duarte 58,890 Mexican pesos ($3,123) on Wednesday, and seized 40 properties that, according to authorities, were acquired with resources from the state.
The former governor was in jail awaiting trial, so from the nine years he was sentenced, the court decided to also count the years he had already spent in there.
“It is impressive that Mexico is going through this, a huge country as it is, with a strong economy we live in an obscurantism,” Lucy Diaz, leader of the Colectivo Solecito of Veracruz, an organisation that helps to find the disappeared people in Veracruz, told Al Jazeera.
Duarte served as the governor of Veracruz from 2010 to 2016, was considered a luminary of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and president Enrique Pena Nieto referred to him as an example of a “new generation”.
However, he became a symbol of corruption and dissapointment.
In October 2016, Duarte was forced from office, two months before the end of his six-year term on accusations of money laundering, corruption and mismanagement.
The party expelled him and a judge issued an arrest warrant. He fled using a government helicopter, which prompted Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant against him.
A reward of 15m pesos ($730,000) was also offered for his capture.
The governor was captured in Guatemala in 2017 and was extradited to Mexico three months later.
During his time in office, there was an increase in gang violence and kidnapping, as well as doubling of the state’s debts. Two former state police chiefs were also charged with running squads that allegedly killed opponents during his administration.
Veracruz also became one of the most dangerous states for journalists as well as a hub for organised crime. It first became a stronghold for the Gulf cartel and later for the Zetas, who broke away from the Gulf cartel in the late 2000s and moved into the state.
Some 3,600 people have gone missing in Veracruz since 2006, and families are still digging mass graves to find their loved ones.
“This is catastrophic, this touches all areas in people’s lives, families have been destroyed, there are grandmothers that have to raise and take care of grandsons after their parents dissapeared,” said Diaz.
“When somebody dissapears there are no records, there is no death certificate, the chapter is not closed, you are not allowed to touch bank accounts, you are not allowed to move schools. It’s a huge puzzle, and leaves a great toll on people.”
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