Mexico City.- Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales’ defense team asked the federal government not to extradite his client, because his delivery to the United States would be an act of treason, since they demonstrated before the federal court that he is not the leader of Los Zetas, nicknamed “El Z-40.”
At a press conference, attorneys Juan Manuel Delgado González, Juan Pablo Penilla Rodríguez, Marco Antonio Avilés Huerta, Fernando Escamilla and Sergio Arturo Ramírez Muñoz said that a man with the same name and alias as their client is already in prison in Bastrop County, Texas, which is why the extraditable person is a namesake.
They said Treviño cannot have a fair trial in the United States, not only because he would face fabrication of evidence, but because Ambassador Ken Salazar has publicly referred to him as a criminal leader and murderer, which has corrupted the citizens who would eventually make up the jury that must declare him guilty or innocent.
“If we consider that the American judicial system, in order to determine the guilt of a person, is based on the system of popular jury, and the executive power of those governed people has already affirmed a priori that Mr. Miguel Ángel Treviño is a murderer, is a leader, is such-and-such, then the entire population, definitely all the people, who would become popular jurors against an eventual but illegal extradition of my client, are definitely already influenced, then they would be definitely already corrupted,” said Delgado González.
“That is to say, there would be a corrupting effect on them, there would be a predisposition to think that my client is indeed a criminal, however in Mexico his guilt has not been proven. It has been proven that he is not Z 40; however, it would be an act of treason to the country to extradite him, because it would not be an extradition, it would be an exile, based on the conditions that we already have.”
Delgado recalled that of the 13 proceedings initiated in Mexico against the alleged criminal leader, the seven in which he was accused of organized crime have already been cancelled, his freedom has been decreed or he has been acquitted due to lack of evidence.
But he noted that in one of those rulings, the judge and then a court established that the criminal organization Los Zetas did exist and was led by Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, “El Z-40,” but that the person detained in Mexico was not that person.
Attorney Marco Antonio Avilés said that although 10 protected witnesses testified in these proceedings against the Tamaulipas native, at the time of the confrontations or identification proceedings, they described a person with different physical characteristics or pointed to a third party as the subject they identified as “El Zeta 40.”
The protected witnesses of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) who testify against the alleged drug lord are those identified with the code names Rafael, Sérpico, Venus, Pitufo, Sagitario, Tibucio, Karen, Tauro and Paco.
Some described “El Zeta 40” as a man 10 centimeters taller than Treviño, others described him with a thick beard, athletic build, light complexion, bullet scars on the abdomen or arm and a tattoo on his chest, characteristics unfamiliar to the detainee.
Juan Manuel Delgado even stated that the witness Rafael had a face-to-face meeting with Treviño during a hearing and told him “I don’t know you, I’ve never seen you and I don’t know who you are.”
For the above reasons, the defense of the alleged drug trafficker asked the Foreign Ministry to deny the extradition and to exercise a consular defense to request the American Ambassador not to violate his presumption of innocence.
The alleged criminal leader has two extradition proceedings filed by the United States, for accusations before the Federal Courts of the Western District of Texas, in Austin, and the District of Columbia, in Washington.
FGR rules out investigating Ken Salazar
The Attorney General’s Office has declined to investigate U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar for allegedly violating the presumption of innocence of Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, the alleged leader of Los Zetas.
According to Treviño’s lawyers, the FGR decided not to investigate the American official for the crime of false statements, because he has diplomatic immunity. Therefore, the investigation file has been closed.
Treviño’s defense filed a complaint against Salazar because on August 16 he made statements in which he accused the extraditable as the leader of a drug cartel and a murderer.
“These two cartel leaders, who have killed and caused so much violence, have been waiting for a judge’s decision for many years: ‘El Z-40’ (Miguel) for more than 10 years and ‘El Z-42’ (Omar) for nine years. There is no decision from the Court regarding these two and we have a request for extradition,” said the diplomatic representative.
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