Cristian Carlos. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
The former head of Mexico's Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, was acquitted Thursday of the crimes that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) charged him with for links to drug trafficking, which detained him at the airport in Los Angeles, California, on October 15, 2020.
In Mexico, the Mexican Attorney General's Office determined that it would not proceed criminally against General Cienfuegos, who would be charged by the New York court for collaborating with the Sinaloa cartel and who sentenced JoaquÃn Guzmán Loera, "El Chapo".
This morning, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, told a press conference that, despite the fact that the Mexican prosecutor's office found no elements to sentence him, according to U.S. records, a legal process will be carried out. And that the arbitrary fabrication of crimes will not be allowed.
The foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said that, for the good relationship of both countries, should be confident in the evidence presented by the U.S. authorities responsible for sending the former head of the Sedena to Mexico.
"In this tribune I said that, for Mexico, it would be unthinkable, suicidal, to do nothing.But what the Attorney General's Office did was to summon Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda to appear," the minister said.
Meanwhile, journalism in Mexico was shaken by the exoneration of "El Padrino.
Dolia Estévez, Mexican journalist, explained:
Anabel Hernandez, a woman journalist, prominent in Mexico for her investigative journalism work regarding Mexican political figures related to drug trafficking, as well as crimes committed by the Mexican State, stated, a few months ago that the Mexican Government, specifically President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has been victimized in the result of Cienfuegos' exoneration.
On the other hand, Julio Astillero, a Mexican journalist, writer and lawyer, pointed out what Vice News reporter Keegan Hamilton said, referring to the fact that the U.S. Justice Department could change its mind if the Mexican government fails to proceed with the Cienfuegos case: