Chihuahua, Chih.- The General Council of the INE endorsed Javier Corral as a plurinominal senator on the list proposed by Morena, despite the evidence presented by the National Action Party (PAN), which proves his ineligibility due to being under criminal prosecution and being a fugitive from justice.
The above, when voting on the distribution of plurinominal deputies and senators that grant Morena 364 deputies together with its allies from the Labor Party (PT) and the Green Party (PVEM), including the relative majority seats.
In addition, they were granted 83 senatorial seats, so they only need three more for a qualified majority. The representative of the BREADMariana Lachica reported on the documentation provided to the INE to prove Corral’s status as a fugitive from justice, but the electoral body ignored it on the grounds that the Chihuahua Prosecutor’s Office was incompetent to carry out such an arrest.
The INE also refused to request information from the Chihuahua Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the criminal court where the case is being heard, to establish the legal status of the former governor, despite the PAN’s long-standing persistence and the fact that councilor Jaime Rivera insisted on it yesterday.
Corral is a fugitive from justice: Mariana Lachica
The PAN representative to the General Council of INEMariana Lachica argued that Javier Corral is a fugitive from justice and therefore should not be given the multi-member senator seat.
“We have come to present documentary evidence to request that Javier Corral Jurado be denied a seat because his political rights are suspended,” said the Chihuahua lawyer.
I reiterate that there cannot be “first and second class citizens” in the horseshoe of democracy, as the main building of the INE is known.
“There can be no differential treatment,” said Lachica, after reiterating that the case must be resolved based on the guiding principles of legality and exhaustiveness, since Corral’s status as a fugitive from justice has been fully proven, he indicated.
He even claimed that it is a public and notorious fact, “we all saw him evade justice last Wednesday, August 14 in the Roma neighborhood,” referring to the “rescue” carried out by the Mexico City prosecutor supported by more than one hundred police officers and 40 “thugs.”
The Political Constitution It is very clear in its article 38, he insisted, which “provides that a citizen is suspended in his political rights if he is a fugitive from justice from the date of his arrest warrant until the criminal action expires.” “A citizen cannot hold office if his rights are suspended,” he insisted in his speech before the electoral councilors.
He said that even if there is an injunction in his favor, there is a procedure in this regard that must be followed.
“We want to ask the General Council of the INE to address this demand in compliance with the Constitution in the terms of file SUP-RAP 102 and SUPJDC 661 of 2022, which is the same case of Javier Corral, who has an arrest warrant for the serious crime of embezzlement for 98 million pesos,” argued the PAN representative.
And he reminded the electoral counselors that we all “saw the influence peddling, he evaded justice; there is a criminal process in the state of Chihuahua against Javier Corral, derived from a complaint by the state auditor; there is an arrest warrant in case 3050 of 2024; there is adherence to the legality of the execution of the arrest warrant; there are documents, that once the action was executed, the accused evaded justice.”
For all the above reasons, “he cannot be a senator of the Republic; he must face justice like any other citizen.”
Lachica said that “Corral is not a champion of transparency and anti-corruption; his Secretary of Finance is a fugitive, his Secretary of Health is in criminal proceedings, his Communications Coordinator has confessed to crimes committed on the instructions of the then governor.”
“Someone without any blemish – he maintained – would never have dared to traffic influence to evade justice, with a prosecutor, a hundred police officers, 40 thugs, is the force he used to flee from justice, and be apprehended in accordance with the proven criminal procedure.”
Lachica said that the people of Chihuahua “are not fooled, his maneuvering over the last few years to date has been very clear in order to ingratiate himself with those who are in power today, and with whom until recently he did not get along.”
“Yes, it has been surprising to see him vehemently defend what he once fought against; we see him flaunting his new and lofty influences, and all of this is understandable, because it has all been about vile ambition and the pursuit of privilege.”
The PAN representative announced that they will file a motion to oppose the agreement adopted by the INE, since it is false that they lack the elements to decide on Corral’s ineligibility, since the “documentation is there,” as are the requests for additional information to be requested by the Chihuahua authorities.
“What the latest version of the project states is false, that the PAN did not present elements and there is no evidence, because from the first document that the PAN representative presented on August 21, the public documents consisting of requests that should be made in accordance with its broad investigative powers and in accordance with the evidence provided were offered verbatim,” he recalled.
And he clarified that if that was not enough, even before the session, the PAN representative again requested that public documents be required to prove Corral’s legal status to the Prosecutor’s Office and the Court.
Instead, he denounced the carrying out of ex officio proceedings by the INE requesting information and referring them to file SUP-RAP 102/2024 in which the challenge presented by Morena was filed.
Councilor Humphrey and Noroña defend Corral
Electoral counselor Claudia Humphrey –wife of former electoral crimes prosecutor Santiago Nieto- said at the INE General Council session that there is no evidence that competent federal or local authorities have taken action to execute an arrest warrant against Javier Corral.
The counselor said that the cases of Francisco Javier Cabeza de Vaca and Javier Corral are different, because in the first case there is a proven arrest warrant as well as his status as a fugitive, and in the second, there is not. The counselor referred to the intention to arrest Corral as acts of illegal abduction, since the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, she said, lacked jurisdiction, since its collaboration is not within the existing agreements between Chihuahua and the Prosecutor’s Office of Mexico City.
“His actions are not legal, nor are their effects… even if he had had jurisdiction, there is no material evidence that he tried to escape,” said the counselor, which is why “he cannot be charged with any crime at this time.”
Senator Gerardo Fernández Noroña said that Corral has committed three unforgivable sins: “having joined our movement, having persecuted César Duarte and not having accepted business from Marko Cortes.”
Now, Noroña said, “they are trying to use a hoax to deprive him of his freedom and prevent him from reaching the Senate… it is clearly political revenge.”
Electoral counselor Jaime Rivera did not agree with the INE’s Prerogatives Directorate in that it was not prudent to make requests to other authorities, since there was no evidence to be included in the file.
He stressed that in any case the necessary steps should be taken to establish this situation, and clarified, “I am not saying that he is not eligible, but as the PAN claims, it has filed a challenge and claims to have presented evidence, and secondly, what I believe is appropriate is to request the Directorate of Prerogatives to carry out the necessary steps to establish the criminal legal status of Javier Corral.”
The Councillor’s request was rejected and not taken into account.
Councilor Hamlet García, in turn, requested the inclusion of video recordings where the Mexico City prosecutor reported that he would inform the Attorney General’s Office of the illegal actions of the Chihuahua Prosecutor’s Office.
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