Dolphin Dealing ex-Mayor Varela

After a controversial election in 2009, Rene Varela of Ocean Embassy dolphin traffickers, who was featured in the Canadian documentary Dolphin Dealer, became mayor in the city of Lake Worth, Florida (the new home to the Earth First! Journal).

According to an article in the Palm Beach Post, Mayor Rene Varela abruptly resigned this Tuesday by sending an email to fellow commissioners, triggering a special election this summer to fill the mayor’s seat. Varela announced in December that he would not seek a second two-year term. At the time, Varela promised to complete the remainder of his first term, which ends in November.

Varela did not attend Tuesday’s commission meeting. His resignation was announced in a letter read by Vice Mayor Suzanne Mulvehill.