What began as one of the most important investigations into corruption in the history of Mexico, because it was a criminal network headed by a governor and that led to the imprisonment of the former president of Chihuahua, César Horacio Duarte Jáquez, who had strong ties with former president Enrique Peña Nieto and the national PRI and at least 48 other people, as well as the connection to the process of the current governor, María Eugenia Campos Galván, has turned around: the investigations practically stopped; the former president has been acquitted of at least five charges; The connection to the process of the president was eliminated and the prosecutor who led the investigations was imprisoned, accused of inflicting psychological torture on at least one protected witness.
Because it is a matter of national relevance, the Attorney General of the Republic decided to exercise its power of attraction to investigate the case and asked a federal judge to hear the matter, but this Tuesday, the control judge Hortensia García Rodríguez, refused to decline your competition.
On September 12, 2017, the then Governor, Javier Corral Jurado, filed 10 criminal complaints against former Governor César Horacio Duarte Jáquez before the Attorney General’s Office for embezzlement and electoral crimes by diverting public resources that went to to the national PRI to support electoral campaigns.
That day, Corral Jurado affirmed that his predecessor and his accomplices, “in the manner of organized crime, seized, distracted, and disposed of large resources from the Chihuahua treasury for their personal benefit, through the use of “emerging” and “ghost” companies. .
According to the investigation called “Operation Justice for Chihuahua”, headed by former prosecutor Francisco González Arredondo, the network headed by Duarte Jáquez, who governed that entity in the north of the country, from 2010 to 2016, bankrupting the public coffers of Chihuahua, committed by the network headed by the former president exceeds 6,000 million pesos. In addition, they accused him of diverting some 250 million pesos for PRI political campaigns.
The response to a request for access to information submitted by a citizen states that, until October 19, 2021, that is, one month after the end of the Corral Jurado administration, the Chihuahua State Attorney General’s Office (FGE ) had opened 162 investigation folders for the illegal exercise of public service, illicit enrichment, fraud, embezzlement, aggravated embezzlement, theft, influence peddling, misuse of powers and powers, and one misuse of documents.
Of these inquiries, 30 files had been linked to the process; 75 people had been linked to the process, of which 42 were arrested and 16 convictions had been achieved.
The current governor was formally accused of receiving money from César Duarte
The current governor, María Eugenia Campos Galván, was accused of being part of a payroll that Governor Duarte had, when he served as a local deputy and member of the Oversight Commission.
The coordinator of the investigation, Francisco González Arredondo, formally accused her of the crime of bribery and a control judge linked her to the process, just when she was already a PAN candidate for the government of Chihuahua, considering that there were elements to presume her guilt for having received, for more than two years, money from the governor, the total amount of which amounted to more than 10 million pesos.
Subsequently, when he had won the election, the magistrate of the third criminal chamber, Juan Carlos Carrasco Borunda, withdrew his link to the process and ordered the procedure to be reinstated, which has not happened.
On July 8, 2020, former Governor César Horacio Duarte Jáquez was arrested in Florida, when he already had at least 20 arrest warrants, and was extradited on June 2, 2022. He is currently being held at the Social Reintegration Center ( Cereso) number 1, located in the municipality of Aquiles Serdán.
Until last December and, according to information obtained by the news portal Sin embargo.com, the president had already been acquitted of five of the seven administrative cases that were filed against him.
Meanwhile, a criminal trial continues in criminal case 2041/2019 and two administrative processes are pending.
The former governor was extradited to answer before the Mexican justice for the crimes of diversion of 96 million pesos between 2011 and 2014, criminal association (embezzlement).
Francisco González Arredondo went from coordinator of the investigations, to accused by those who accused
On November 21, the case of the investigations into the so-called “Operation Justice for Chihuahua” took a turn: the persecutor became persecuted, as the former coordinator of the investigations, Francisco González Arredondo, was arrested.
The State Prosecutor’s Office reported that the former prosecutor for the Defense of Human Rights, was arrested, in attention and follow-up to a complaint that the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) heard, for the probable crime of torture against protected witnesses.
The accusation against him establishes that between 2017 and 2018, when he was working as an agent of the Public Ministry, he carried out acts of psychological torture to the detriment of a victim of reserved identity identified only by his initials: JJBP.
Iker Ibarreche, González Arredondo’s lawyer, explained that the specific facts attributed to his client is that the interrogations of the former officials who had used an opportunity criterion lasted up to eight hours; that they were summoned several times, or that they were not allowed to go to the bathroom, but they never specify which of those specific behaviors the former official carried out.
The lawyer said that the crime for which the former official was accused does not warrant informal preventive detention and what the control judge Hortensia García Rodríguez applied was justified preventive detention, considering that since he was an official of the Prosecutor’s Office it could hinder the investigation, in addition to that, being released, it could be a risk for the complainants, although they never justified what those risks consisted of.
In this sense, according to former Governor Javier Corral, the witnesses who now claim to be victims of psychological torture are the same ones who testified in the oral trial that took place against Alejandro Gutiérrez Gutiérrez, accused of participating in the diversion of the Secretary of State Education to the PRI, 250 million pesos
They are José Jaime Bustamante Pérez, Ever Eduardo Aguilar, Jesús Olivas Arzate and Miguel Ángel Mezquitic Aguirre; all of them former officials of the Ministry of Finance in the administration of César Duarte.
Former prosecutor Francisco González Arredondo was imprisoned in the Cereso de Aquiles Serdán, where former governor Duarte Jáquez and several former officials and businessmen accused by the former official of participating in the diversion of public resources are also interned.
Former governor Javier Corral Jurado denounced that the arrest of the former prosecutor is part of a personal vendetta against the official, by the governor, María Eugenia Campos Galván, for having denounced her and managed to have her consigned to the trial.
What is serious, he added, is that they are trying to dismantle the investigation into the crimes committed by the corruption network headed by former Governor César Horacio Duarte Jáquez.
In his opinion, what is happening is that the investigation of acts of corruption is being criminalized, in addition, he warned of what, he said, is a strategy to pave the way to freedom for ex-governor Duarte Jáquez.
“It is about discrediting the investigations and disarming the files of both the secret payroll and the 19 arrest warrants that make up the Duarte case, arguing that the testimonies were manipulated through psychological torture.”
For his part, lawyer Iker Ibarreche explained that his client, Francisco González Arredondo, asked the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to file the case; however, the unit decided to exercise its power of attraction, but considering that it is a crime of torture and is part of a case of social relevance.
Meanwhile, the federal district judge, Vladimir Vejar Gómez, accepted the competition, for which he asked the control judge, Hortensia García Rodríguez, to hand over the investigation folder.
Ibarreche reported that this Tuesday, January 17, the Chihuahua State Prosecutor’s Office informed the judge of its decision to deliver the FGR to the investigation file, but the judge refused to accept the jurisdiction of the federal judge, stating that the prosecutor’s office federal did not justify its intention of attraction.
This created an irregular situation because the federal prosecutor’s office already has the file and will be in charge of the investigation, but the local judge did not want to decline her jurisdiction, so that the federal judge is the one who judges.
If the control judge remains in that position, it will have to be a Federal Circuit Collegiate Court who decides who should judge.
