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

By KELIN DILLON

On Tuesday, March 8 – International Women’s Day – the niece of Mexico’s Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) Alejandro Gertz Manero, Ana Paula Castillo Cuevas, presented an “expansion” of her request for her uncle’s impeachment to the Chamber of Deputies, alleging that her relative had committed gender-based violence.

Recently leaked audio tapes of Gertz’ telephone conversations revealed the attorney general’s interference with the Supreme Court (SCJN), which purportedly implicated Gertz in attempting to prevent the release of his niece and Castillo Cuevas’ mother, Alejandra Cuevas Morán. Gertz has previously used his power to put Cuevas Morán into prison on the charge of the negligent homicide of Gertz’ deceased brother and the accused’s father, where she has spent 509 days thus so far, with Gertz similarly going after his brother’s elderly widow on the same allegations, though with less success.

Gertz extended family claims the Attorney General abused his power to declare his brother’s natural death at the age of 85 a homicide so he could extort the family for some $3.5 million pesos and his brother’s high-value possessions. While Gertz maintains that his brother’s death was a homicide, the Attorney General has been fraught with other controversies as the situation with his family has played out publicly, including allegations of illegal enrichment and an academic plagiarism scandal.

“We are expanding our demand due to gender violence on this International Women’s Day, since in the audio leaks that occurred on Friday of last week, the prosecutor refers to my mother as the ‘old asshole.’ You can clearly see this misogyny from the attorney general,” said Castillo Cuevas to the Chamber of Deputies.

“Alejandro Gertz Manero cannot be allowed to be in charge of the administration of justice in this country, which currently registers thousands of femicides, murders and disappeared women and which refers to this sector of the population in a derogatory manner,” continued Castillo Cuevas. “You cannot have a prosecutor using his power in that way and referring to women in a derogatory manner. We must have a person who is protecting, not shredding, the rule of law.”

The SCJN is docketed to discuss the Gertz case on Monday, March 14, where the court’s ministers will determine the potential freedom of Cuevas Morán from prison.