Rafael Caro-Quintero in custody on US soil
This week's handover of Rafael Caro-Quintero and 28 other Mexican kingpins to the US is making headlines in Mexico. The below article from yesterday's Excelsior is translated by Fousesquawk. Apparently, it was something other than a formal extradition as I had previously reported.
Sending 29 kingpins to US, due to risk of being freed or delaying extradition: Garcia Harfuch
Garcia Harfuch says that the rights of the 29 transferred persons were respected. FGR (National Prosecutor's Office) clarifies that it was not extradition.
By Jimena Campuzano 16:48
Caption: Omar Garcia Harfuch, Secretary of Security
The delivery of 29 narco-traffickers, among them, Rafael Caro-Quintero, and the brothers Miguel Angel and Omar Treviño Morales, founders of Los Zetas, to the United States, was because the risk existed that they would be freed by judges, or that the extradition process would be further delayed, said Secretary of Security, Omar Garcia Harfuch.
"The risk existed that some of the targets sought by the government of the United States would be freed or continue to delay the processes of extradition due to agreements with judges who sought to favor them as had already been done on other occasions," said Garcia Harfuch in a press conference.
The head of the SSPC (Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection) claimed that the 29 kingpins who were sent to the US as a result of a request by that country, committed "atrocious" crimes in Mexico and acts of "extreme violence" through the criminal organizations to which they belonged and represented a threat to national security in our country and the North American country (USA).
No violations of reprieves for the kingpins sent to US: FGR (Attorney General of the Republic)
The Attorney General of the Republic, Alejandro Gertz Manero, stated that there were no violations of reprieves or protections of the 29 kingpins who were sent to the US since it was not an extradition, rather it was a different process based on the Law of National Security, specifically Article 5, which established the conditions to carry it out.
"Reprieves cannot be violated by a procedure that is unrelated to those reprieves," the prosecutor said when asked if the sending of the 29 narco-traffickers wouldn't bring a judicial crisis to the country.
Gertz Manero explained that the United States government had made a formal and (well) grounded request for the 29 narco-traffickers, so the National Security Council was convened, which after an analysis, determined that it had complied with the legal basis and proceeded to carry out the transfer.
"It was a specific written request, soon after it arrived the National Security Council convened, an analysis was made at that meeting, the legal basis was seen, and (the Council) proceeded. It was an immediate matter," he explained and said that it was not an accelerated process or had anything directly to do with the decision of the US government whether to suspend the tariffs.
Are the kingpins sent to the US facing the death penalty?
After the State Department made it public that at least 6 of the 29 narco-traffickers, including Rafael Caro-Quintero, could face the death penalty, the head of the Attorney General's Office chose not to speculate since it is the judge who is responsible for determining the sentence.
"The penalties for trial sanctions are not established by the State Department, they are established by the judges, and we have a clear agreement that legislation, like that of Mexico, which does not have this sanction, must be respected where we have agreements of collaboration," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment