The trial must reveal whether Calderón and US agents knew about García Luna’s illicit acts

Alonso Urrutia and Nestor Jimenez

Newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, January 19, 2023, p. 4

The trial that is being carried out in New York against the former Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna should provide information on the level of involvement that the agents or authorities of the United States could have, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said yesterday, who questioned : How is this double life? On the one hand, he is rewarded and, on the other, he has a protective relationship with organized crime. And in what way do they not find out! Now no one found out, until suddenly they stop him and the accusation comes.

The president considered that in this process, which has lasted three years since the arrest of García Luna in the United States, the prosecution must provide the corresponding evidence. How are they going to have a person detained for three years and go to trial and have no evidence? It would be a fiasco. More than that, an injustice, but three years have passed and there is talk of many witnesses.

García Luna is accused of receiving bribes to protect the Sinaloa cartel, being linked to organized crime and lying to the judicial authority.

In his conference on Wednesday, López Obrador spoke out in favor of US authorities testifying. He said the judgment will determine to what extent were the agents or authorities of the United States, the agencies.

Questioned about the legal process, he asked to wait, in particular, about the possible involvement of former President Felipe Calderón, but anticipated that although he has differences with his predecessor, he does not intend to initiate actions in Mexico against him.

three scenarios

López Obrador conjectured that there are three possible scenarios that will arise from the process. One, that García Luna is innocent; two, that he is guilty of the charges against him, but it is proven that Calderón was deceived by his subordinate and did not find out what was happening, and three, that both knew about the bribes and are linked.

He stressed that the process, which is estimated to last two months, must be known if García Luna kept the bribes or divided the loot. He pointed out that, according to the lawyers, it has been mentioned that these deliveries were arranged, so this point must also be clarified. I am of the idea that, if authorities from the United States were involved, that they be called to testify and that they participate.

López Obrador criticized the claim of García Luna’s defense that only the assets he accumulated up to 2012, when he left public service, be considered, and the money he obtained privately be dismissed. “How is it that ‘only while I was a public servant and the businesses that I did, which are private businesses, and the wealth that I obtained, do not have to be taken into account’?”

I would ask myself, out of common sense, how do you get so much money in such a short time?exposed the president in the National Palace.

He also stressed that his administration will insist, as in all trials that take place in the United States, that the money obtained in Mexico be returned to our country.