The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) arrested the former governor of Chihuahua César Duarte, of the PRI, for the alleged crime of money laundering, as federal government sources confirmed to EL PAÍS. The arrest of the former president took place this Monday in the capital of Chihuahua, where Duarte, although linked to other corruption crimes under state jurisdiction, enjoyed conditional freedom. The PRI politician, who governed the entity between 2010 and 2016, will be transferred to the Altiplano prison in the state of Mexico, the most important maximum security prison in the country, where high-profile criminals are usually sent.
The operation for the Federation to get their hands on Duarte was arduous work that lasted months. The former governor was extradited by the United States in mid-2022, when Chihuahua authorities requested him for crimes of embezzlement and illicit enrichment. Duarte’s management was under investigation during the six-year term of Governor Javier Corral, his successor as governor. The local executive documented a loss of 6 billion pesos (more than $300 million). Much of this fortune, according to the Corral government, passed into the hands of the former PRI governor, who acquired numerous properties in Mexico and the United States.
When he was taken to Chihuahua, the state government, in the hands of PAN member María Eugenia Campos, granted Duarte many facilities to ease the weight of his punishment. Part of that was the agreement that he could face the charges freely. The former governor, very media-friendly, showed off his outings and was photographed dancing in bars. The federal government, first with Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president and now with Claudia Sheinbaum, warned of the signs of impunity this sent to the public.
About a year and a half ago, efforts began to ask the United States – the country that extradited him – for permission to charge Duarte in federal court, in this case on money laundering charges. The authorization came last week, according to the sources consulted, when Ernestina Godoy was already starting to take possession of the floor, after the replacement of Alejandro Gertz. This allowed FGR agents to execute the arrest warrant issued by a federal judge on Monday. This is the first coup d’état by the public prosecutor under the Godoy era.
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