Friday, May 3, 2024

Lawmaker accused of sexual assault seen as flight risk

The National Immigration Institute (INM) has put out a travel alert for Morena party legislator and sexual assault suspect Saúl Huerta. The Mexico City Attorney General’s Office requested the alert, which will record any attempt by the federal deputy to leave the country.

Huerta was arrested on April 21 for the assault of a 15-year-old boy in a Mexico City hotel, but released due to his immunity as a lawmaker. Soon after, another accusation of sexual assault came to light. A 20-year-old man said April 23 that Huerta assaulted him three years ago in the state of Puebla.

The Mexico City Attorney General’s Office said on Friday it had found chemical evidence that the 15-year-old had been drugged and sexually abused.

Attorney General Ernestina Godoy confirmed that there are at least two accusations against Huerta, and one young man and his family are under federal protection.

A lawyer for the parents of the 15-year-old said this week that the boy was undergoing treatment in a psychiatric hospital for anxiety and depression. He also said the victim and his family have received threatening phone calls.

Huerta himself appeared this week for the first time since he was accused. He claimed in an interview that he was the victim of a campaign of defamation on the part of “the mafia of power,” a term that President López Obrador uses to describe those who held power in previous governments.

Meanwhile, Huerta’s colleagues in Congress are expected to discuss the removal of his lawmaker’s immunity this month or next despite an attempt by the Morena party to have it delayed until September.

Source: Animal Político (sp), Milenio (sp)

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