Mexico Metropolis Arrests Neighboring State’s Legal professional Common, Who Accuses Ex-Soccer Star of Corruption

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Prosecutors from Mexico Metropolis took the intense and weird step of getting marines to accompany them throughout state traces and arrest Uriel Carmona, the lawyer common of the neighboring state of Morelos, and spirit him again to the capital.

The scene Friday in Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos state, was like a cleaning soap opera, involving dozens of closely armed brokers, political scandals, a former nationwide soccer star and drug traffickers. One in every of Carmona’s employees went stay on Fb to movie the arrest.

Mexico Metropolis prosecutors stated Carmona was arrested on costs of obstructing the investigation into the 2022 killing of a Mexico City woman whose physique was discovered dumped simply over the state line in Morelos.

However Carmona says he’s the sufferer of a political conspiracy involving former soccer star Cuauhtémoc Blanco, who’s presently the governor of Morelos state. Carmona stated President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered his arrest as a result of Carmona was investigating Blanco’s alleged ties to drug traffickers.

Blanco, a political ally of López Obrador, has denied any hyperlinks to drug traffickers after a 3-year-old picture surfaced displaying him posing with three males recognized as native drug gang leaders. Blanco stated in 2022 that he didn’t then know who the boys have been, and that he assumed they have been simply soccer followers, with whom he ceaselessly poses in images.

In an interview with the MVS radio station moments earlier than he was arrested at his house, Carmona claimed he was the sufferer of a political persecution and blamed Mexico Metropolis Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum — now a primary presidential candidate for López Obrador’s Morena social gathering — and the president himself.

“It is a marketing campaign in opposition to me to guard Morelos Gov. Cuauhtémoc Blanco, as a result of detectives beneath my command have opened greater than 10 investigations in opposition to him for a number of critical crimes, like his possible ties to organized crime,” Carmona stated.

Carmona referred to as his arrest unlawful, as a result of an lawyer common should first be impeached earlier than being arrested.

The Supreme Court docket dominated that Carmona couldn’t be arrested with out first being impeached, however López Obrador’s workplace issued an announcement in July rejecting the ruling, claiming that it didn’t apply to costs like obstruction of justice.

Sheinbaum, who resigned as Mexico Metropolis mayor to contend for the 2024 ruling-party presidential nomination, rejected Carmona’s accusations, saying “this isn’t a political challenge, this is a matter of justice.”

In 2022, Sheinbaum accused Carmona of deliberately botching an post-mortem of Ariadna López, 27, to cowl up for her killer. Sheinbaum alleged that Carmona had ties to the suspected killer, although she refused to explain their purported hyperlinks.

Carmona stated on the time {that a} state forensic examination confirmed López choked on her personal vomit on account of intoxication. A second post-mortem carried out by Mexico Metropolis specialists discovered “a number of lesions brought on by blows” on López’s physique and listed the reason for dying as “a number of traumas.”

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