Former Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral during his attempted arrest on Wednesday, Aug. 14. Photo: Google

By KELIN DILLON

On Wednesday, Aug. 14, former Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral was nearly arrested by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of Chihuahua while dining in Mexico City – until the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico City intervened and prevented his apprehension.

Corral, a former conservative National Action Party (PAN) member who now belongs to the in-power National Regeneration Movement (Morena), faces accusations of tax fraud and the embezzlement of 98 million pesos in Chihuahua.

The Chihuahuan authorities had reportedly requested assistance with the arrest from the Mexico City Prosecutor’s Office since Aug. 9.

However, when the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor of Chihuahua Luis Abelardo Valenzuela Holguín arrived to arrest Corral on Wednesday evening, the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico City instead allegedly acted against the northern state’s officials in favor of protecting Corral.

Likewise, the former Chihuahua governor was reportedly protected by six units of the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) at the time of his attempted arrest and was later pushed out of the restaurant by Mexico City Attorney General Ulises Lara himself, an incident that was captured on video.

“They are obstructing justice, they rescued him by force, it is unusual, inadmissible, incredible,” Valenzuela told Mexican radio host Ciro Gomez Leyva.

However, Lara said that the Mexico City Prosecutor’s Office simply “decided not to cooperate” with the Chihuahua authorities’ request for Corral’s arrest – despite the fact that Lara’s own office already authorized the arrest warrant against Corral.

Ironically, Corral is expected to head Mexico’s federal Anti-Corruption Agency under President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum’s upcoming administration.

For his part, current Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) characterized Corral’s attempted arrest as a matter of “political dispute and revenge” during his daily morning press conference on Thursday, Aug. 15.