National Electoral Institute President Lorenzo Córdova. Photo: Google

By KELIN DILLON

Just more than a week after Mexico’s Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) opened an investigation into six councilors of the autonomous National Electoral Institute (INE) on Dec. 24 for their role in postponing the proposed revocation mandate, INE President Lorenzo Córdova requested the FGR to close the investigation, claiming it was based on “clearly nonexistent alleged crimes.”

The initial investigation was prompted by President of the Chamber of Deputies and National Regeneration Movement (Morena) member Sergio Gutiérrez Luna, who claimed the councilors purportedly acted in misconduct to the General Law of Administrative Responsibilities and accused them of acting in a “criminal coalition of public servants,” citing Article 216 of the Federal Criminal Code and alleging affects to the councilors’ impartiality and efficiency.

For his part, Córdova released a video message across social media channels on Sunday, Jan. 2, asking the FGR to dismiss the investigation against the INE officials indefinitely. 

“Criminal complaints against public servants are prosecuted ex officio, and today they continue their course before the FGR,” said Córdova. “Hopefully, the error will soon be corrected, and the complaints about alleged crimes that are clearly non-existent, and that obviously only have political purposes, are dismissed.”

Córdova went on to criticize Gutiérrez Luna’s role in the investigation, saying the Morenista’s claims resulted in “a border being crossed that should be impassable, on which the entire democratic arrangement is based.”

“(Gutiérrez Luna’s) complaint is an act that recalls the worst practices of authoritarian regimes, as persecuting public servants, for making agreements and resorting to other powers to try to fulfill their legal responsibilities, implies criminalizing the right to dissent,” said Córdova.

“(Gutiérrez Luna) wanted to use the criminal arm of the state to intimidate and threaten members of an organ of the same state for the simple fact that they think differently. It is serious that the president of a power, in which the plurality of the nation is also represented, has resorted to criminal complaints to try to imprison those who do not have the same opinion as him.” 

At the end of his message, Córdova said that the INE is presently working on reorganizing the consultation of the revocation mandate in compliance with the Supreme Court’s ruling, even in spite of the INE’s documented lack of sufficient resources to effectively carry it out.