MEXICO CITY — Prosecutors say they have arrested a man who faked his death to beat a rape charge, then later got elected mayor of a village in southern Mexico.

The Oaxaca state prosecutors' office says Leninguer Carballido was arrested on charges of using fake documents and making false statements.

Carballido was found late Tuesday hiding in a heavily fortified room at his family's home on the outskirts of Oaxaca City.

Carballido won July 7 elections for mayor of the village of San Agustin Amatengo.

When authorities were looking for him in 2011 in connection with a 2004 rape case, his family submitted a death certificate saying he died of natural causes in 2010.

The public records clerk who drew up the fake certificate has also been arrested.