Revenge

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reiterated that the attempted arrest of former Chihuahua governor Javier Corral “has to do with political revenge” for the investigations he conducted against the former governor of that state, César Duarte.

During the morning press conference on Friday, the head of the Executive pointed to the current governor of Chihuahua, Maru Campos, for this attempt against Corral.

“What I can say is that politically there is a difference between the current governor and the former governor that originates because former governor Corral is the promoter of the complaint against (former) governor Duarte, the accusation of corruption, there is a whole file.”

He pointed out that since Corral will be a senator for the transformation movement — he is part of the circle of the next president Claudia Sheinbaum —, “they are rushing to arrest him, to implicate him, so that he cannot be a senator, because there are only a few days left. In other words, there are only 15 days left, fourteen days. So that’s it. Because if he is a senator, he has immunity and then they would have to carry out a request for impeachment, and in those circumstances it is more difficult.”

He recalled that Corral, when he was state governor, launched an investigation against the PRI member Duarte and “it was proven at that time that money was used for campaigns, that even politicians were involved, not only from Chihuahua, but from other parts of the country, politicians linked to Manlio Fabio Beltrones. It is a story.”

However, he pointed out, with the current conflict and the accusations against Corral today, some media outlets “do not contextualize, do not give the background. It is as if this had come up yesterday, the day before yesterday; no, this comes from an investigation that was done when Corral was governor against Duarte.”

López Obrador said that the investigations against Duarte led him to try to evade the accusations against him by going to the United States.

“An extradition is promoted, but once in Chihuahua, due to his relationship with the current governor, he is granted conditional release or bail or house arrest. And then, revenge comes and Corral is accused of embezzling 90, 100 million pesos and the accusation is made by the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office and the trial is conducted by the Chihuahua Judicial Branch.”

-Do you see a factional use of the prosecution? – he was asked.

-Yes, it is a completely political issue, and every time there is something like that I am against it because I was a victim of that, I suffered from how they fabricated a crime against me to strip me of my immunity (when he was head of government of Mexico City), deep down what (Vicente) Fox, the ministers of the Court, the legislators wanted was for me not to participate as a candidate for the Presidency.

The Tabasco native considered that “there is a relationship” between the current governor Campos and the former president Duarte.

“It seems incredible, but it is not because we already know that this alliance, this political promiscuity, has existed for a long time, that was the work of (Carlos) Salinas de Gortari. This thing about Chihuahua, in appearance, Mr. Duarte (former) PRI governor, and the current PAN governor are different, but in fact they are the same, they are allies.”

And he asked: “How do you judge someone for theft in such a situation, if they fabricate the crime, which is most likely? Why? How long have they been against Corral in the Chihuahua government? Why now, a month before the election?”