Attorney General’s Office must transformed ‘for the good of Mexico,’ Sheinbaum says: Friday’s mañanera recapped

The resignation of Alejandro Gertz Manero as Mexico’s attorney general was a central focus of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Friday morning press conference.

Sheinbaum also spoke about the woman who appears most likely to become the next federal attorney general.

In addition, she advocated for a more collaborative and transparent Federal Attorney General’s Office.

Sheinbaum offered attorney general an ambassadorship 

Asked about the resignation of Gertz Manero, Sheinbaum told reporters that she had offered an ambassadorship to the 86-year-old and he accepted.

“Soon we’re going to say where he’s going because there has to be a process between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the [host] country,” she said.

“Until the credentials are accepted, [the host country] can’t be announced, that’s a rule,” Sheinbaum said.

Attorney General Gertz resigns after nearly 7 scandal-filled years on the job

According to media reports, Gertz — attorney general since January 2019 — will become Mexico’s ambassador to Germany.

Opposition politicians and media commentators have claimed that Gertz was pushed out of the attorney general’s role in a power grab by the Sheinbaum administration.

Among them was Senator Alejandro Moreno, national president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

“I deeply regret the coup movement that the narco-politicians of [the] Morena [party] launched against [Gertz]. It is yet another sign of the authoritarian face of this regime, which seeks to impose a terrorist and communist narco-dictatorship in Mexico,” he wrote on X.

Sheinbaum wants more coordination between her administration and the ‘autonomous’ FGR

Sheinbaum said she hopes there will be “even more coordination” between the different departments of her government and the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) once a new attorney general has been appointed on a permanent basis.

Ernestina Godoy, a former Mexico City attorney general who served as Sheinbaum’s top legal adviser during the past year, has replaced Gertz on an interim basis. She is considered the favorite to become Mexico’s next chief law enforcement official. If appointed to the role on a permanent rather than interim basis, Godoy will become the country’s second female attorney general after Marisela Morales.

Sheinbaum said that the FGR and the Attorney General’s Offices in Mexico’s 32 federal entities are “fundamental” to the success of the federal government’s security strategy because it is “ultimately” up to them to initiate and carry out criminal investigations, and to request search and arrest warrants from judges.

“Even though the Attorney General’s Office is autonomous — I’ve always thought that — coordination between the Ministry of Public Security, the National Guard and the Attorney General’s Office is fundamental in order to continue making progress toward a safe country with justice,” she said.

“This coordination is very important for us. … It was already happening, but I hope that now, once the new attorney general is appointed, that there will be even more coordination, because it is the responsibility of the Mexican government, the [federal and state] Attorney General’s Offices, and the judiciary to advance security and peace in our country,” Sheinbaum said.

The judiciary now includes the judges, magistrates and Supreme Court justices who were elected in Mexico’s first ever judicial elections on June 1.

Godoy is ‘an extraordinary woman,’ says Sheinbaum

Asked whether she would like to see Godoy as Mexico’s next attorney general, Sheinbaum noted that it will be up to the Senate to decide.

The president, however, will submit a list of three candidates to the upper house of Congress, which will select a successor for Gertz via a two-thirds majority vote.

Sheinbaum indicated that she would very much like to see her erstwhile legal advisor as federal attorney general.

“Ernestina is an extraordinary woman,” she said of Godoy, who served as Mexico City attorney general during Sheinbaum’s 2018-23 mayorship in the capital.

The president also said that Godoy is an “honest” woman “of principles” and “many convictions.”

“She demonstrated her [ability to get] results when she was attorney general of Mexico City,” Sheinbaum said.

Among the high-profile unresolved cases Godoy inherits as acting attorney general — and which she will be tasked with advancing if she is appointed to the role on a more permanent basis — are those involving the disappearance of 43 teacher’s college students in Guerrero in 2014 and corruption allegations against former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya, who has been awaiting trial for years.

Sheinbaum: The FGR needs ‘a transformation for the good of Mexico’

Sheinbaum told reporters that her “personal opinion” is that the Federal Attorney General’s Office needs a “transformation for the good of Mexico.”

Such a transformation, she added, would entail the FGR becoming “more transparent.”

“I believe that will be up to the attorney general who … is appointed by the Senate,” Sheinbaum said.

She also said that it will be up to the next attorney general to decide what the FGR’s priorities will be.

Sheinbaum herself identified fuel smuggling as a crime she believes the FGR should focus on.

“It’s very important for all the investigations to continue and that those named in the investigation files be brought to justice,” she said.

Sheinbaum also indicated that the prosecution of “high-impact crimes” such as murder and kidnapping, as well as “white-collar crime,” should be a priority for the FGR.