Antonio Baranda and Claudia Guerrero/ Reform Agency
Monday, February 06, 2023 | 08:56
CDMX.- President Andrés Manuel López Obrador asked that in the trial of Genaro García Luna the bribes that the former official would have given to the newspaper El Universal be made known.
“Yesterday it came out that the lawyers do not want the version of a witness to be released (…) That talks about what García Luna or the Secretary of Security that managed resources delivered to a newspaper in Mexico, the same lawyers also say ‘not that’, I say as a Mexican, yes, of course, everything,” he said in a conference.
This Sunday, the defense of the former Secretary of Public Security for Felipe Calderón asked the judge of the Court for the Eastern District of New York, Brian Cogan, to prohibit a testimony of an alleged bribe paid to the media.
“I was watching, at that time, I don’t know if I sent you a few little messages that the government is ending, the spots, look at this, what we are going to see now (…) Yes, contracts,” said the President.
– With that they bought departments?
“Yes,” he answered.
“But look at this and of course, since they distributed money, a lot, to the media, well, they can say ‘it’s advertising’ but look at what kind of advertising,” he added.
This weekend, García Luna’s defense lawyers presented a brief in which they stated to the judge that they consider that the testimony, by a person identified as Héctor Villarreal Hernández, seeks to be used by the Prosecutor’s Office to present press articles critical of the former police commander and thus influence the jury.
“This seems to be an exit through a back door on the part of the Government to present the journalistic reports that accuse García Luna of corruption (based on what they heard or because of the obvious),” they indicated.
The document was made public by the Court and later withdrawn without there being, as yet, an explanation as to whether or not the judge considered it appropriate.
This week the trial against the former police commander continues and several witnesses are expected to appear before the jury to provide their stories regarding the alleged activities carried out by the former official to protect the Sinaloa Cartel.
In an editorial published this Monday, the newspaper El Universal denied that it received bribes from García Luna to give positive coverage during his time as head of the SSP.
“In this regard, this publishing house considers that the testimonies are only serious and credible when they are accompanied by evidence that supports them. For now, what there is documentary evidence of is that El Gran Diario de México always maintained balanced and critical coverage. of the management of García Luna.
“One of them is that, in 2011, El Universal won the National Journalism Award in the news category, for a job that denounced the millionaire spending made by the Secretary of Public Security, then under the command of García Luna. , to produce a television series to promote the image of the Federal Police. This is proof,” he said.
