Two Warrants for One Raid

Mexico’s federal prosecutors have accused César Jáuregui Moreno, Chihuahua’s former state attorney general, of treason for letting U.S. agents join an April drug raid without federal authorisation, and are holding him while a state court hears a separate case over the same raid.

The Attorney General of the Republic, Ernestina Godoy, announced the federal case on Saturday 17 October. “La investigación determinó que César ‘N’ habría incurrido en hechos posiblemente constitutivos del delito de traición a la Patria en materia de seguridad nacional,” she said, as quoted by Expansión Política: the investigation found that he may have committed acts constituting treason in matters of national security. The presence of the foreign agents, she said, “atenta contra la soberanía y la integridad de la nación,” and the case was “un ataque al pacto federal y a la división de poderes.” A federal judge granted the arrest warrant after more than 100 investigative acts, Uno TV reported.

What happened in April?

A state operation against a drug laboratory, with Americans present. The raid ran from 17 to 19 April at El Pinal, in the municipality of Morelos, according to Expansión. It became public after two U.S. agents and two Mexican officials were killed in a road accident on 19 April, Al Jazeera reported; media outlets identified the Americans as CIA officers. In a statement on 20 April, Jáuregui ruled out the involvement of foreign personnel and said U.S. instructors had been nearby for drone training and had asked to join a police convoy back to the airport. He resigned on 27 April.

Godoy’s account, as Uno TV summarised it, is that Jáuregui ordered and coordinated the operation; that state police acted without powers to carry out actions reserved to the federation and without first opening an investigation file; and that he told federal forces only after the raid, having already informed the foreigners. Her legal framing was constitutional. “Nuestra Constitución y la Ley de Seguridad Nacional señalan que las entidades federativas se encuentran limitadas para asumir facultades reservadas a la federación, así como transferir potestades públicas a autoridades extranjeras,” she said, per Expansión: the states may not assume federal powers or transfer public authority to foreign officials.

Which law is he charged under?

The offence has been named but the provision has not been published. Uno TV reports that treason is punished under Article 123 of the Federal Penal Code with five to forty years in prison and a fine of up to 50,000 pesos. The code’s current text, published by the Chamber of Deputies, lists fifteen forms of treason in that article. None mentions a state government or cooperation with a foreign agency in so many words.

The nearest in terms, on this publication’s reading, are two. Fraction I reaches a Mexican who carries out “actos contra la independencia, soberanía o integridad de la Nación Mexicana con la finalidad de someterla a persona, grupo o gobierno extranjero,” which requires a purpose of subjecting the nation to a foreign power. Fraction II reaches one who takes part in hostile acts against the nation “mediante acciones bélicas a las órdenes de un Estado extranjero o coopere con éste en alguna forma que pueda perjudicar a México.” Article 124, in the same chapter, separately punishes with five to twenty years a Mexican who, “sin cumplir las disposiciones constitucionales,” “admita tropas o unidades de guerra extranjeras en el país.” Which fraction or article the prosecutors invoke has not been reported. Al Jazeera notes that experts call the offence vaguely defined and that the last widely recognised conviction came in 1867, when Emperor Maximilian was tried by court-martial.

Why are there two cases?

Because the state and the federation each charged him. Chihuahua’s prosecutors arrested him on the morning of 17 October on a state warrant, Uno TV reported, for improper exercise of public service and a second offence SDPnoticias gives as “coalición” and Expansión as “colisión.” At a hearing on 18 October the state judge refused the pretrial detention the state had requested and instead ordered him to surrender his passport, stay away from witnesses and sign in periodically, Excélsior reported. Federal agents arrested him on the treason warrant as he left the state courthouse. Excélsior and SDPnoticias place that arrest after the 18 October hearing; Uno TV dates the execution of the federal warrant to 17 October. The outlets read for this piece do not reconcile the two dates.

On Monday 19 October he was moved to the Altiplano maximum-security prison in Almoloya de Juárez, in the State of Mexico. Excélsior reported that the federal hearing at which prosecutors would formally charge him was set for Tuesday 20 October, and that the state hearing on whether to bind him over for trial, set for Thursday 22 October, would be held remotely. Al Jazeera reported on 21 October that a judge had ordered him held in pretrial detention “as the court decides whether there is sufficient evidence to move forward with a criminal case,” without naming the court. None of the Mexican outlets read for this piece reported the outcome of the federal hearing, so which judge ordered detention, and when, could not be confirmed. The state judge’s refusal and the reported detention are not in conflict: they are two courts, applying two codes, to the same raid.

What is not known?

The provision charged, the federal judge’s ruling and the defence’s formal answer. President Claudia Sheinbaum said that “siguen las investigaciones sobre otros temas relacionados con el fiscal, o el exfiscal, que hoy está detenido, por otros delitos,” Excélsior reported, leaving any further charges to the federal prosecutors. Jáuregui belongs to the opposition National Action Party; Sheinbaum is a leader of the governing Morena party.

A state judge decided he could await trial at home. A federal warrant decided he would not. The raid in both files is the same one.