Former Mexican Secretary of Social Development Rosario Robles. Photo: Google

By KELIN DILLON

On Monday, Aug. 8, a Mexican federal judge struck down an arrest warrant involving allegations of money laundering and organized crime issued against former Secretary of Social Development (Sedesol) Rosario Robles, though she is set to remain in prison awaiting trial on other charges surrounding her time at Sedesol.

Robles has been accused of using her position of power as the head of Social Development in Mexico under the administration of former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to illegally funnel billions of pesos – purportedly equivalent to $250 million – from both Sedesol and the Secretariat of Agrarian and Urban Territorial Development (Sedatu) through shell contracts with Mexican universities and public institutions, a plan now known colloquially as the “Master Fraud.” 

In 2019, Robles was arrested and preventatively detained in the Santa Martha Acatitla prison, where she has resided ever since, awaiting further legal proceedings. She has since characterized her imprisonment as a matter of “revenge, plain and simple” and said she is a “political prisoner.”

The newly suspended warrant was previously granted by ​​Judge Iván Zeferín Hernández in 2020, though Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR) failed to follow through on arresting Robles in the years to follow. The federal judge ruling on the matter on Monday, Aug. 8, determined this warrant to be null and void due to the fact that it was issued after Robles had already been booked into the Santa Martha Acatitla prison.

Despite the warrant’s suspension, Robles will remain in prison as she awaits trial for charges of improperly exercising public service throughout her time at the Sedesol as ordered by Judge Felipe de Jesús Delgadillo Padierna.