Mexico’s AG Office Confirms Removal of the Chavarría Case

(Chilpancingo, ElSur 4 April) The Guerrero representative of the office of the attorney general of Mexico, Estela Cadena Azcona, informed a PRD member of the state legislature, Carlos Álvarez Reyes, that the Chavarría matter was removed to the federal level on June 3, 2010. The legislator, for his part reported the same before the plenary of the chamber of deputies. The man is one of the most loyal supporters and defenders of ex-governor Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo, whom many have accused of taking a hand in the assassination of several Guerrero politicians during his six-year mandate, including Armando Chevarría. Mr. Álvarez used the occasion to criticize the current attorney general, Alberto López Rosas and the governor, Ángel Aguirre Rivero, saying that they were misleading the legislature by saying the file could not be located. He called for public apologies, and then requested that the answer of Ms. Cadena Azcona be read into the record.

All of this seems like partisan politics and political theater. Nothing explains why no trace of the case can be found at the state level, not even a copy of what was delivered to the federal prosecutors last summer.

Moreover, Ms. Cadena Azcona did not exactly say that the investigative file has been located or that it is in the possession of the federal authorities. What she said was that the case was removed last June from the state level to the federal level, as provided under Mexican law, and that the matter was within the jurisdiction of a specific subdivision of the Ministry of Justice competent to handle such matters. Conspicuously absent is any mention of the actual investigative files, which are the center of the controversy. No one has actually produced the investigative file on the Chavarría matter, and no one has come forward to give a report on its status.

The argumentative legislator asked finally, “Why should López Rosas even care? Once the case has been removed to the national level, there is nothing he or anyone else at the state level can do anymore.” The response was that the state AG has an interest in seeking justice in the case of a political homicide, especially one that has the appearances of a local cover-up to protect people with political influence.

Until the Mexican Attorney General confirms possession of the actual investigative files and reports on its status, the political dogfights in the state capital will continue between those loyal to the former administration and those supporting the new one.