Gustavo Castillo Garcia
Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, October 30, 2022, p. 5
More than nine months after the Mexican government obtained arrest warrants against seven people for their involvement in the operation Fast and Furiousthe government of the United States has not responded to various requests for information made by the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) and that would lead to determining the responsibilities of other former officials in the illegal transfer of 2,000 firearms that during the government by Felipe Calderón were distributed to various criminal organizations, including the Sinaloa cartel.
In January of this year, the Federal Public Ministry announced the issuance of arrest warrants, including one against the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán Loera, who remains in prison in the United States; against Genaro García Luna, former secretary of federal Public Security (also detained in the United States), and Luis Cárdenas Palomino, Intelligence coordinator of the Federal Police, imprisoned in the Federal Center for Social Readaptation number 1, Altiplano, which is located in the municipality of Almoloya de Juárez, in the state of Mexico.
the operative Fast and Furious Its purpose was to illegally traffic more than 2,000 firearms from the United States to Mexico, with the alleged purpose of identifying their users, a situation that has been described in this federal administration as absolutely illegal and unacceptable
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The data initially provided by the United States Department of Justice allowed, according to the FGR, establish said illegal trafficking of firearms, which were used in various blood crimes in the country, from 2009 to recent dates
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Currently the investigation is still ongoing by the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime (Femdo). According to information from federal authorities, the United States Department of Justice has not responded to requests that are related to the agreements reached with Mexican authorities during the government of Felipe Calderón and whether the former president approved this operation, as well as the participation he had Marisela Morales, who was head of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), among others.
Likewise, the sources consulted indicated, there are pending reports related to the identification of weapons used in various violent actions committed in Mexico, especially by members of the Sinaloa cartel since 2009, and the totality of the type of weapons and the numbers of each of them. those delivered to criminal organizations as part of the plan Fast and Furious.
The interviewees referred to what was mentioned in a statement made last September by the National Conference for the Prosecution of Justice: “It should be noted that the nature of the investigation is complex, since it involves situations that occurred on both sides of the border, coupled with During its development there have been various obstacles.
“As an example, to date, full attention to requests for international legal assistance requested from the United States government is still pending, regarding basic data, such as – among others – the identification data of each of the weapons that were illegally introduced into national territory.”
