César Arellano, Iván Evair Saldaña and Israel Dávila
Reporters and Correspondent
La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, December 15, 2025, p. 6
A federal control judge linked the former governor of Chihuahua, César Duarte Jáquez, to trial for the crime of use of resources of illicit origin, and confirmed that he will remain in justified preventive detention.
María Jazmín Ambriz López, judge of the Federal Criminal Justice Center of Almoloya de Juárez, in the state of Mexico, gave a period of six months for the closure of the complementary investigations, which expires on June 9, 2026.
The Public Ministry of the Federation provided the necessary evidence for the judge to make said determination and ratify the precautionary measure of justified preventive detention, which will be carried out in the Federal Center for Social Rehabilitation Number 1 in the Altiplano, state of Mexico.
The public ministry that participated in the proceedings maintained that Duarte gave the current governor of Chihuahua, María Eugenia Campos, 10 million pesos to avoid going to prison, which is why it asked the judge to keep him in justified preventive detention.
According to the investigation by the Attorney General’s Office, Duarte, in an apparent money laundering scheme, attempted to hide 73 million 925 thousand 995 pesos allegedly diverted from state coffers.
The hearing began on Saturday afternoon and lasted until dawn yesterday, when a recess was declared. During that pause, the judge analyzed the more than 100 pieces of evidence that the Public Ministry provided to support the accusation, and based on them, almost at noon on Sunday, the togada issued her resolution to link César Duarte to the trial.
