The wait in the Senate
On Thursday, tension arose in the Senate with a session that was called unexpectedly and began at 10:00 a.m. with licenses for senators and other legislative issues. Outside, they waited for Gertz’s “resignation letter” to arrive. At 1:30 p.m. a recess was declared and tension rose. In the building on Paseo de la Reforma and Insurgentes, the passage of journalists was restricted and “accesses were closed” to avoid being close to the negotiations.
Senators from Morena commented to Political Expansion that the prosecutor did not want to present his resignation, even though Claudia Sheinbaum’s government had given him an ultimatum.
Time passed and the possibility of dismissal began to resonate, given the power of senators to do so only for the “serious causes” contemplated in the Administrative Responsibilities Law or crimes that merit informal preventive detention.
More than seven hours later, the letter in which Gertz informed the Senate that his career would take a turn was finally released.
“I inform you that the Head of the Federal Executive Branch, Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, has proposed me as Ambassador of Mexico to a friendly countrywhich is being processed at this time,” states the three-paragraph letter sent to Laura Itzel Castillo, president of the Senate Board of Directors.
As of this date and with all the corresponding legal effects, I am retiring from my current position as Attorney General of the Republic.
Alejandro Gertz Manero, former prosecutor.
(Special)
Quickly, Gertz’s retirement as head of the Attorney General’s Office was endorsed with 74 votes in favor and 22 against the senators and between alerts from opposition politicians because he did not actually request his resignation neither “the serious cause” was specified with which your application was accredited.
Tension in the Palace
Rumors of her departure began a day earlier, when the president received the coordinator of the Morena senators in the Senate, Adán Augusto López Hernández, a legislator involved in controversy after having Hernán Bermúdez, leader of the criminal organization “La Barredora”, as Secretary of Security of Tabasco.
In the morning conference marked by the theme of the 2026 Soccer World Cup, the question came to President Sheinbaum: “Has the Attorney General of the Republic, Alejandro Gertz, expressed to you his intention to leave office?” she was asked.
“Until now, he has not told me,” responded the president.
However, he confirmed that he had received a letter from the senators of the Republic, which he would analyze with the Legal Department of the Presidency of the Republic, then headed by Ernestina Godoy.
“What I am reporting is that I received a letter from the Senate of the Republic, I am analyzing it with the lawyers, the Legal Department, and tomorrow we will inform you,” he said.
(Photo: Presidency of Mexico.)
For José María Soberanes, professor at the Universidad Panamericana and law expert, the prosecutor’s departure has one of two reasons: a bad job at the head of the Prosecutor’s Office or that he did not want to cover someone.
“One reason is because they have seen that he has done a bad job or a poor job, but the other is because he does not want to protect someone. They are totally different extremes. In one we could say, he leaves for a legitimate reason, but in the other, because he does not want to protect a politician, it would not be legitimate because it would be for political reasons or for someone’s personal reasons,” he maintains.
For the expert, the way in which Gertz Manero leaves the FGR sets a bad precedent because his departure was marked by tension and pressure.
“If it was not a voluntary departure, they could remove it. This gives politicians weapons to make the institution prosecute crimes in this country.”
José María Soberanes, professor at the Universidad Panamericana.
