translated from Spanish: Senate reviews Prosecutor Gertz’s anti-crime plan; NGOs warn it’s illegal

The Committee of Justice of the Senate of the Republic initiated the analysis of the plan presented by the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR), Alejandro Gertz Manero, with which he seeks to reduce impunity and strengthen the fight against crime, through various actions ranging from prioritizing attention to 10 types of crimes, to promoting a package of legislative reforms.
This is the so-called Criminal Pursuit Plan (PPP) sent to the upper house a few days ago, and which according to the law must be approved by most senators, in order for it to be put in place.
The revision of the document, according to legislators consulted by Animal Político, not only covers its contents but also the way it was prepared and delivered to congress, since according to citizen organizations it is a plan that violates provisions of the Organic Law of the FGR.
The 70-page document, which has not officially been transparent, first points to a diagnosis of the institution. There are reported situations that had already been noted in another package of reports such as the lag of thousands of investigations inherited by the then PGR – many of which have already been prescribed –, the lack of economic resources and the low effectiveness in some of the most serious crimes.
“The diagnosis at the close of the PGR is strong: the function of investigating and resolving the crimes brought to its knowledge was not fulfilled, it concluded with a lag of more than 300 thousand unfinished investigations, 21 thousand unfulfilled arrest warrants, and 3 thousand lagging expert opinions,” the document states.
In order to deal with this situation, the plan proposes, inter alia, to redistribute workloads and for 70% of FGR prosecutors to deal with and clarify the lag of cases, while the remaining 30% should be targeted at ten priority criminal axes.
These axes are: corruption; offences against national heritage; economic and financial wrongdoing; human rights crimes; offences against the freedom of persons; anti-trade; firearms-related offences; illegal anti-election; environmental crimes and drug trafficking.
The plan also sets out a number of indicators and objectives, as well as strategies to strengthen the investigation of crimes. These include the need to propose reforms to Congress to “overcome legal obstacles” that currently exist.
Although the document does not abound in the aforementioned reforms, they have already been addressed previously by prosecutor Gertz Manero himself and include from the creation of a National Penal Code, to a reform of various articles of the Constitution. The presentation of these initiatives was postponed since 15 January for lack of agreements.
NGOs accuse default
Civil organizations that have followed up closely on the process of forming the Attorney General’s Office for more than two years warned that the Criminal Pursuit Plan sent by Gertz Manero violated the legal procedures agreed for its elaboration and delivery and is therefore an illegal document.
Ana Lorena Delgadillo, Founder and director of the Foundation for Justice and the Democratic State of Mexico (FJEDD), which is part of the #FiscalíaQueSirve collective, detailed in interview that the prosecutor’s document violates three key points that the law contemplated for it: that it be a collective construction, based on reports of human rights violations and with real citizen participation, not formalities.
“Gertz’s PPP violates that: it has been given without being seen by the Citizen Council (even though required by the Prosecution Act), without the victims being considered directly, without a collective construction process involving civil society as indicated by article 6 of that law,” he said in an interview.
Delgadillo explained that these conditions that are now breached are not an occurrence but an institutional design worked by the experts and the current government, with the aim of fostering a real change in the system of proving justice, based on the experience and contribution of those who in the past have been re-victimized by a PGR that did not work.
Another concern, the director of the FJEDD added, is the timing and “seriousness” with which this strategy would have been made.
Just december 10, the FGR informed a federal judge on the ground of a claim for protection brought about the absence of the Citizen Council that marks the Law of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, that there was no definitive criminal prosecution plan since it depended fairly on the Council that was not formed.
However, on January 18, it transpired that the plan had already been sent by the Prosecutor to Congress. This can only mean two things: that the FGR lied to the federal judge, which would be a crime, or that he told the truth and a steamed plan was built in just over a month, just to meet the times of the law.
“We are going to bring our concerns to the Senate because they have an important role to play in ensuring that the federal prosecutor does its duty and is required to verify that the prosecutor is complying with the law, not just of accusing a document without analyzing it. On the other hand, we will continue with the protection presented,” Delgadillo added.
The expert finally lamented that the attorney general is focusing its efforts on legislative reform while ignoring the legal provisions that already exist and are in place. He insisted that the priority should be to work on the transformation of the practices and operation of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, because without this there was no possible change of background.
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Original source in Spanish