The fate of Mexican lawyer Víctor Manuel Álvarez Puga is still unknown. Wanted in Mexico for organized crime, money laundering and tax evasion, Álvarez Puga was until a few days ago in the custody of the American anti-immigration agency, ICE, which had detained him since September for irregularities during his stay in this country. Claudia Sheinbaum’s government took advantage of her immigration capture to push for her extradition. However, there is now no trace of the lawyer. His name has disappeared from the public register of ICE detainees, and neither Mexican authorities nor Álvarez Puga’s lawyers, consulted by EL PAÍS, have explained what happened to him.
Álvarez Puga and his wife, the famous driver Inés Gómez Mont, are accused by Mexican prosecutors of running a criminal network of money laundering and evasion through billing companies, paper companies that pretend to provide services and issue false receipts. The couple, according to the prosecution, were involved in the huge embezzlement of almost 3 billion pesos from the Ministry of the Interior in 2016, when the agency was headed by Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, during the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto, both of the PRI. According to the investigation, the details of which this newspaper had access to, a structure of shell companies simulated a contract to obtain the resources, which were then laundered through multiple banking transactions. Part of the money, at least 18 million pesos, ended up in the couple’s accounts.
These resources were initially intended to improve the security of the country’s prisons. The investigation against Álvarez Puga began under the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but senior officials in the lawyer’s network of complicity managed to delay the action of the prosecution. Ultimately, a judge authorized the capture of the lawyer and his wife in September 2021. Interpol also issued a red card for their detention abroad. After the announcement that Álvarez Puga was in the hands of ICE, the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, stressed that she was awaiting the lawyer’s extradition. “We strongly hope that there will be no impunity in this matter,” the president said.
However, in early December, Álvarez Puga’s name stopped appearing in ICE’s online detainee locator system, which could mean the lawyer was released, or transferred to another U.S. authority, or sent to Mexico. This newspaper has been sending questions for days to the spokespersons of the prosecution, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior, asking for information on the character, without answering the question. A questionnaire was also emailed to Álvarez Puga’s attorneys, John Patrick Pratt and Edward Fortunato Ramos, with no response. Another question was sent to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, who also did not respond.
Álvarez Puga was captured by ICE on September 24 based on an immigration arrest warrant. He has since argued in court against his deportation to Mexico. According to trial documents seen by this newspaper, the lawyer filed an asylum application in which he claims he and his family are facing persecution in Mexico because of their “conservative political positions.” The lawyer assures in this petition that he is “afraid to return to Mexico given his political opinions and his membership in a particular social group”. In other words, according to his version, the Mexican government is pursuing him for political motivations and not for his alleged involvement in the embezzlement of millions of dollars from the Treasury.
Álvarez Puga had been in the United States since January 2021, months before warrants for his arrest were issued in Mexico, according to immigration court documents. In July, when his regular stay in this North American country was about to expire, the lawyer went to the Bahamas. His return was planned by plane, but he returned to the United States by boat and without his entry ticket having been validated by immigration officials. Since then, he has lived irregularly in the state of Florida, where he and his wife have amassed a huge real estate fortune, documented by EL PAÍS.
Álvarez Puga’s defenders managed to delay the expulsion process, as they requested that their client be heard beforehand to re-examine his case. Prosecutors reported a few weeks ago that an immigration judge had already ordered the delivery of the lawyer to Mexico on October 17, a decision that was contested by his defense. Meanwhile, in Mexico, some pieces have moved. Last week, Jesús Gabriel Pérez Rodríguez, former director of the technological sector of OADPRS, the body dedicated to prison administration, belonging to the Ministry of the Interior, was arrested. The prosecution claims that the former official was directly involved in the embezzlement attributed to Álvarez Puga.
To date, only former officials and mid-to-low-profile frontmen have been brought to justice. Osorio Chong, the former head of the Interior at the time of the discrepancies, was not included in the prosecution’s investigation. The network of senior officials who, over the past six years, helped Álvarez Puga build his corruption empire, or who directly contracted his “illicit” services, are also on the list of authorities in waiting. This newspaper has revealed some Treasury audits which show how some of the money embezzled from the government was dispersed to the accounts of relatives of politicians, businessmen and people in the entertainment world.
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