“Time is starting to put everyone in their place”: US senators lashed out at Gertz Manero over the Alejandra Cuevas case

The case of Alejandra Cuevas, the 69-year-old woman recently released after spending 528 days in prison accused by prosecutor Alejandro Gertz Manero of a crime which does not even exist, was taken as an argument by US senators who sent a letter to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), in which they condemned that their administration is politicized and allows serious abuses such as “personal vendettas” by the head of the Attorney General's Office (FGR) ).

The prosecutor's case against Alejandra Cuevas at all times was merely a personal matter l. She is the daughter of Laura Morán (95 years old, Mexico City) who was the romantic partner of Federico Gertz Manero, the official's brother, for almost half a century until 2015 when he died of his deteriorating state of health. Alejandro accused Laura of homicide for omission of care, as guarantor, that is, who was in charge of care. He also included in his lawsuit Alejandra, as an “accessory guarantor”, a figure that the same Supreme Court has just considered simply non-existent.

For years, the lawsuit against both women simply did not proceed as the judges considered it inappropriate. Once Gertz Manero assumed the highest post of justice in Mexico, the charges — among a myriad of irregularities — proceeded and led, for a crime that does not exist, Alejandra Cuevas to be locked up in Santa Martha Acatitla from October 2020 until March 28.

“Time is starting to put everyone in their place,” Alonso Castillo Cuevas, Alejandra's son, told Infobae. “I am grateful as a US citizen to see that the Senate of that country is aware of the situation in Mexico, where not only are economic issues discussed, but also the subject of my mother.”

He also said he was willing to share with the US authorities all the details of the siege of Gertz Manero against his mother. “If the United States Senate wants to know the details of the persecution and the use that the owner has made of the FGR, we are willing to share with them the evidence we have, based on the fact that I am a US citizen and the prosecutor demanded that I incriminate myself with a crime that he manufactured when he arrested my mother for a crime she invented”.

The US Senators' letter to President López Obrador was revealed this week by AP agency journalist Joshua Goodman. The text accuses that the federal government is characterized by “a growing pattern of apparently selective prosecutions that disproportionately target critics of the government.”

Officials also warned that the Mexican justice system itself is “weakened and politicized,” focusing, according to Goodman, specifically on the actions of prosecutor Alejandro Gertz Manero, which they named as “personal vengeance.” In addition, he warned that the head of the FGR uses his power to “selectively pursue opponents of the current administration”.

US senators also called on President Joe Biden's government to express its concerns directly to its Mexican counterparts. Among the complainants who signed the document are Senator Robert Menendez, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Patrick Leahy, chair of the Appropriations Committee; and legislators Benjamin Cardin and Jeffrey Merkley.

However, the Mexican president spoke out in defense of his prosecutor and said that the US senators who drafted the letter “are, with all due respect, liars,” assuring that the US Democrats' approaches are due to the fact that there are interests involved, “in the United States there are elections.”

“I can only say that they are wrong, uninformed,” the president insisted, responding to them “we do not accept interference; we do not act by slogan against anyone”.

KEEP READING: