For the Mexican political class – no matter which party they belong to – political corruption is so important and delicate that it can never be left in the hands of the citizens. It is something like a thing that only the small club of those who exercise power for hire can deal with and settle their accounts, entrenched in top government positions.
Today, once again, the former governor of Chihuahua, César Duarte, has returned to prison; Now he is in a real de a, which is meant as a State safe where the most dangerous criminals are locked up. At this time we know that a preventive detention order was issued, which makes it probable that his captivity will last for a long time.
I welcomed the decision of the new Prosecutor Ernestina Godoy to proceed with the arrest of the tyrant of Chihuahua; It is a measure that is relevant from whatever angle you want to see it. The previous Prosecutor, Alejandro Gertz Manero, had kept the case that dates back to September 23, 2014, when Unión Ciudadana criminally denounced him, without the fate of that first complaint that emerged from outside the sphere of the political class having been made clear.
Fighting corruption from the citizen level, betting that current law is properly applied and at the same time demanding that institutions function and do so responsibly, is extremely difficult. Conducting investigations and obtaining evidence is a titanic task, and it would be even more so with the ongoing abolition of public access to information, which the powerful do not like.
With the 2014 complaint, César Duarte was accused of illicit enrichment in the amount of 65 million pesos that he used to create a family trust – his wife included – to acquire controlling shares of a bank in the process of creation that was ongoing and that, in effect, was authorized by the National Banking and Securities Commission.
Creating the bank from small credit unions involved channeling into them an enormous flow of public money deposits to falsely accredit a large flow of operations that justified the founding of a multiple banking institution; very Chihuahuan, Duarte said, like in the times of the Porfirista Banco Minero, or the powerful Comermex that Eloy S. Vallina created in his time. They were delusions of grandeur of the Balleza mythomaniac.
The collapse of Duartism and the PRI as a party in the state of Chihuahua had the great trigger in that complaint. The action corresponded to a citizen effort and is installed in the collective imagination of the Chihuahuans. But there are some details that now concern Duarte in Almoloya:
Firstly, what has become of this well-founded complaint? Because the prosecutor’s offices – all of them – have not wanted to inform. I even find it embarrassing that today the defendant is called “César N” and his photograph has a black band on his face, as if no one knew who he was. Things about penal reform.
This has reached such a point that I have promoted an amparo, pointing out as responsible authorities, among others, the attorney general’s offices of the federation and of Chihuahua for the omissions of knowing the status of the process, and the demand that the competent judges be appointed. In the case of the local prosecutor’s office, it has reported, procedurally and administratively, that it ignores the existence of our complaint, which is made public and notorious, even at the national level and there is a copy of the receipt, also widely disseminated.
When the case against Duarte began, it was sought to ensure that the time did not overlap with any constitutional election, partly so that citizens would not become partisan in the case, and partly to have an informed resolution, now with the full effects it could have. But that hasn’t happened.
The 65 million from the aforementioned trust had to be accredited by César Duarte as having been lawfully obtained, which was impossible. However, it was obvious that it was going to be concluded that the origin of that amount was illicit, with all possible sources: the obvious one, the public treasury; and the not so obvious, but countable, fact that it was the product of influence peddling, the result of its collusion with organized crime.
What we now have in circulation through the media is something that resembles what was originally reported, but no one knows fully, except the political class that decides to keep countless data confidential for its opportunistic manipulation.
In society, the event is seen as a distraction, or as a preview of the paved road for Morena to win the future election in Chihuahua, depriving the PAN of one of the jewels in its crown.
There are opportunists, like Javier Corral, who in a matter of minutes rushed to appear in the media practically to say that he was the author of such a measure taken by the FGR, that he is at the center of all this, biting his tongue, because precisely he has evaded the action of justice by using the crudest influenceism.
By this I mean that Duarte is becoming a kind of cleaner of the image of a neo-Morenalist like Corral and a source that makes politics in Chihuahua a game of personal hatred. And this is obviously wrong, since we do not know for sure what it is about, although we can speculate about it.
For now, in a district court in the city of Chihuahua we are keeping up the fight these days so that citizens, in plural and without highlighting anyone’s merits, know that their fundamental actions are getting results. For some it is a task for the deluded, but, as the saying goes, there is no worse fight than the one that is not done.