Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas came out in defense this afternoon of the performance of Alejandro Gertz Manero in the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic, a department that was investigating him for illicit enrichment, tax fraud and diversion of funds, but that never presented a request for immunity (withdrawal of immunity) before the Chamber of Deputies so that he could face a judicial process.
Mexico City, November 27 (However).– Alejandro Gertz Manero “He has been a serious public servant, who has conducted his work with strict adherence to the law, without political overtones, with impartiality, without protagonism and defending institutional autonomy,” defended A.Alejandro Moreno Cardenas in the face of reports that advance the resignation of Attorney General of the Republic.
“I am very sorry for the coup movement that Morena’s narcopoliticians launched against him. It is another example of the authoritarian face of this regime, which wants to impose a terrorist and communist narco-dictatorship in Mexico,” wrote the national leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), even though the departure of Gertz Manero from the FGR has not been confirmed.
The administration of Gertz Manero at the head of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has been distinguished by its passivity in the face of important cases of corruption inherited from the last presidential administration of the PRI, including the Master Scam, Odebrecht, the embezzlement in Pemex and the investigations, initiated and apparently suspended, against former president Enrique Peña Nieto and the current leader of the PRI, Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas, who today defends him.
The investigation by the Attorney General’s Office against “Alito” Moreno Cárdenas was different from that carried out by the Campeche Prosecutor’s Office. The FGR deepened the investigations through the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in Combating Corruption, headed by María de la Luz Mijangos Borja. This investigation folder (FED/FEMCC-CAMP/0000275/2002) focused on the crimes of illicit enrichment, diversion of federal funds, tax fraud, use of resources of illicit origin and influence peddling, as SinEmbargo published on September 12, 2022.
The allegations focused on the period between 2015 and 2020, which practically covers the time in which “Alito” served as Governor of Campeche, although in 2020 he was already president of the PRI.
To carry out its investigations, the FGR sent letters to federal government agencies requesting information on administrative procedures related to Moreno Cárdenas. These offices were marked “RESERVED and URGENT”.
Despite the existence of this federal investigation and the prosecution of multiple crimes, Hugo Eric Flores Cervantes, president of the Investigative Section of the Chamber of Deputies—the body in charge of evaluating the violation—revealed to “Los Periodistas” on August 28 that the FGR never formally presented a request to withdraw constitutional immunity against Alejandro Moreno.
This statement is key because, although the FGR had delved into the crimes of illicit enrichment, diversion of funds and tax fraud, the formal request so that he could be tried never reached Congress.
Flores Cervantes delved into the mystery of the case before the Lower House, pointing out that in the files there is “no request from the Prosecutor’s Office.” He indicated that, although he had read newspaper articles that talked about a request from the Attorney General’s Office, said request never reached the Chamber of Deputies, remaining only as “journalistic information.”
In fact, at the beginning of the LXVI Legislature, the Investigative Section reviewed its files and only found one document referring to the “Alito” case, which indicated that the matter was not filed due to alleged suspensions obtained through amparos.
In contrast, the only formal request for immunity that was presented to the Chamber of Deputies came from the Campeche Prosecutor’s Office, which requested that Moreno Cárdenas’ constitutional immunity be withdrawn for the first time on August 17, 2022, for crimes such as illicit enrichment, embezzlement and money laundering, during his administration as Governor.
This initial request was left “in the freezer.” Therefore, the fact that the PRI’s file apparently “disappeared” from the files of the Investigative Section and that the FGR never promoted the removal of immunity, despite investigating multiple serious crimes, illustrates how the federal criminal action was stopped before seeking the removal from office necessary for Moreno Cárdenas to be tried.
The truth is that the performance of the Attorney General’s Office under the direction of Alejandro Gertz Manero has been key to guaranteeing the impunity of prominent PRI figures by showing inaction in the prosecution of serious crimes.
In a similar way to that of “Alito”, in the case of former president Enrique Peña Nieto, who faced at least three investigation files for money laundering and illicit enrichment since 2022, Gertz Manero confirmed that these were not prosecuted. The Attorney General argued that the complaints were not ratified and that the evidence was not provided to him, even though the Financial Intelligence Unit had made public evidence data that pointed to an illicit enrichment scheme.
The FGR also contributed to impunity through procedural failures that culminated in the acquittal of high-profile defendants. In the case of Rosario Robles Berlanga, who spent three years in prison for the so-called “Master Scam”, the FGR could not prove her responsibility. In February 2023, the former secretary was exonerated of the crime of improper exercise of public service, freeing herself from accusations related to the diversion of five billion pesos, and her case was officially closed by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) in October 2024.
Another significant “defeat” for the FGR occurred in the process against lawyer Juan Collado Mocelo, who was acquitted of the crimes of organized crime and money laundering in January 2024. In addition, a federal judge ended the process against him for tax fraud in April 2024, considering that the crime had already prescribed.
Finally, Gertz Manero’s performance has been questioned for its inefficiency and for attributing the lack of results to third parties, which has allowed processes to stagnate and those involved to obtain benefits. The case of the former director of Pemex, Emilio Lozoya Austin, involved in the Odebrecht scandal, is an example in which the FGR has suffered multiple setbacks.
Despite being the only one who went to jail, Lozoya has been under house arrest since February 2024. Gertz Manero has indicated that the process is stopped due to alleged “chicanadas” and failures in the Judiciary, discharging responsibility for the stagnation of the criminal case.
This series of outcomes in the cases of Moreno Cárdenas, Peña Nieto, Robles, Lozoya and Collado illustrate how the FGR’s actions have been ineffective, confirming the perception that prosecutors are in a “mud” of impunity, inefficiency and complicity.