Attorney General of the Republic Alejandro Gertz Manero. Photo: Presidencia

By KELIN DILLON

Mexico’s Attorney General of the Republic (FGR), Alejandro Gertz Manero, was accused of using his status and influence to illegally recover the assets and accounts of his deceased brother, Federico Gertz, for himself.

Gertz allegedly sought to imprison his former sister-in-law and two of her daughters, blaming them for the negligent homicide of his brother that purportedly led him to ill health and his eventual death.

Federico was married to his partner, Laura, for more than five decades, and died at the age of 85.

Gertz succeeded in jailing one of the daughters, Alejandra Guadalupe Cuevas Morán, while an arrest warrant remains out for the 94-year-old widow.

The other daughter, Laura Cuevas Morán, does not have an arrest warrant against her, gaining privilege as the mother-in-law to the current governor of the State of Mexico (Edoméx), Alfredo del Mazo.

“We never imagined that with the death of Federico the persecution against our family would be born,” said Alejandra’s son, Alonso Castillo Cuevas, in a video released on Wednesday, June 3.

“If the Attorney General of Mexico denounces you, the law is ‘what I say’, and not what is actually written in the codes. This is a violation of human rights orchestrated by the authorities themselves who withheld information to achieve the arrest of a 68-year-old lady.”

Lawyers from the family denounced the illegal arrest warrants and prosecutions, as well as a lack of evidence relating to the case, and irregularities in the process.

The family alleges that Gertz asked them to transfer 3.5 million pesos from his brother’s account, after his passing, to his own, as well as many of his possessions, including works of art by Diego Rivera and Francisco Toledo, rugs and silver tableware.

Gertz, for his part, denounced his family’s claims, saying that the arrested daughter, Laura Cuevas Morán, was rightfully imprisoned for transferring her father’s funds to a foreign bank account after receiving a written warning not to do so.

“The family believes that the path to take is one of blackmail and lies, using social networks to try to victimize themselves, hiding the truth and extorting the real victims to desist from their legal actions,” said Gertz in a letter delivered through his lawyer to daily newspaper Reforma, in which he also doubled down on his claims that his extended family intentionally caused the death of his brother.