Ally of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto Set to Get Anticorruption Post Juan Montes and Dudley Althaus - The Wall Street Journal
go to original November 2, 2016

Raúl Cervantes, at center with beard, was sworn in as Mexico’s attorney general last week (Newscom/Zuma Press)

President Enrique Peña Nieto has set up a close ally to become Mexico’s first independent prosecutor, spurring accusations that he seeks to shield his scandal-plagued government from the kind of inquiry the new post was meant to ensure.

Mexico’s Senate confirmed Raúl Cervantes, 53, as Mexico’s attorney general - the third in four years - after a whirlwind confirmation process last week that resulted in nearly unanimous approval.

Mr. Cervantes is a longtime member of Mr. Peña Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, having served as the party’s legal counsel and a senator. He is also a first cousin of the president’s personal lawyer and senior confidant.

While cabinet posts often go to presidential allies and ruling-party loyalists, this particular nomination is generating controversy because of a wide-ranging legal reform aimed at improving Mexico’s woeful legal system, where government figures show only 2% of crimes are solved.

Under the reform, Mexico’s attorney general’s office will be remade into an independent prosecutor’s office. The new prosecutor, whose term will last nine years and who can’t be fired by the president, is meant to be free to pursue cases of crime and public corruption without political interference.

The new law sets out that the sitting attorney general at the time the implementing legislation is passed - likely sometime next year - will automatically become the first independent prosecutor.

That puts Mr. Cervantes in line to be in charge of meting out justice in the country until roughly 2026 - well after Mr. Peña Nieto’s successor leaves office in 2024.

Read the rest at The Wall Street Journal

Related: Senate Doesn't Question, Defers to Peña Nieto Over New Attorney General (Mexico Voices)

Related: Ana Cristina Ruelas: New Attorney General, Raúl Cervantes, Should Not Become Prosecutor General in New Justice System (Mexico Voices)

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