OPINION

Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero. Photo: Google

By THÉRÊSE MARGOLIS

In what might finally be the beginning of the end of the judicial terror imposed by Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero, the recordings of two phone conversations were leaked on YouTube on Friday, March 4, proving (once again) Gertz Manero’s direct intervention into judicial cases in which he has a vested interest.

In the recordings, Gertz Manero is heard speaking with Federal Prosecutor Juan Ramos López regarding the ongoing “case” against Gertz Manero’s 94-year-old sister-in-law and 69-year-old niece, who has been imprisoned — without any real evidence against her — since October 2020, allegedly for having been instrumental in the death of Gertz Manero’s brother Federico, who died in 2015 — wait for it! — in the ABC Medical Center at the “tender” age of 85 from a heart attack, related to a chronic and pre-existent heart failure condition, according to an autopsy performed by government authorities.

In a Hail Mary Pass attempt to salvage some vestiges of real justice inside the current Mexican administration’s farcical excuse for a legal system, a lower-court justice, Alberto Pérez Dayán, had ruled that continuing to hold Gertz Manero’s niece, Alejandra Cuevas Morán, not only was unsubstantiated by tangible evidence, but violated her basic human rights as a Mexican citizen.

Consequently, Cuevas Morán was tentatively slated to be released from prison on Monday, March 14.

But Gertz Manero — who has used his position not only to launch an all-out legal assault on his in-laws, but has also expropriated their home, art collection, bank accounts and other assets, worth millions of dollars — was livid at the prospect that Cuevas Morán might regain her freedom, so he conspired with his yes-man patsy Ramos López to overturn Pérez Dayán’s ruling.

In the recorded calls, Gertz Manero is heard telling Ramos López how to “disqualify” the ruling so that Cuevas Morán would continue behind bars.

In response to the leaked audio recordings, Cuevas Morán’s family — which has long been defending her in the media and courts — appealed Saturday, March 5, for her immediate release on the grounds that her life would be in danger should she remain in a prison that falls under the jurisdiction of Gertz Manero.

Calling the tapes “irrefutable and reliable proof that the head of the Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office Alejandro Gertz Manero, as well as the Competence Control Prosecutor Juan Ramos, are operating illegally and peddling influences with the ministers of the Supreme Court,” the family is once again hopeful that justice will prevail.

But the Teflon-coated Gertz Manero is banking on his buddy, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) — who has repeatedly called him “incapable of abusing the justice system” and who steadfastly defended him when he launched a ruthless legal attack on 31 esteemed scientists and academics who disclosed the fact that he had plagiarized his professional thesis — to come through for him once again, exonerating him with the magic words of “he’s innocent; these accusations are part of a plot against him and my administration by corrupt conservatives.”

After all, whenever AMLO has wanted to “eliminate” a pesky opponent, Gertz Manero has faithfully trumped up charges against them and thrown them into prison.

So Gertz Manero is expecting a similar exculpation from the president during his early morning press conference on Monday, March 7.

However, Gertz Manero might just get a rude awakening during that presser, since AMLO is up to his neck in the scandalous revelations about his eldest son, José Ramón López Beltrán, who, it was revealed last month, was living in a million-dollar mansion in Houston, Texas, that happened to belong to a senior executive of the Baker Hughes company, which currently holds contracts with the López Obrador administration for more than $151 million in works for the state-owned oil giant Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

In the last two months, AMLO’s popularity index has dropped by a substantial 13 points, according to the national survey carried out by El Financiero, its lowest level since he took office in December 2018..

And then there is that sticky case of his brother Pio, who appeared in internet videos receiving thick manila envelopes in cash from León Romero, the then-consultant to the governor of Chiapas, Manuel Velasco, back in August 2020.

Yes, AMLO is up to his neck in scandal-infested waters, and with push now coming to shove, it is only a matter of time until he will have to decide which opprobriums to prioritize for political damage control.

Then, we shall see if, for AMLO, blood is thicker than politics.