Montiel plans complaint against Campos over criminal-link accusations
Original reporting: El País México
What happened
Morena leader Ariadna Montiel says she will pursue a complaint for reputational harm, slander and gender-based political violence after Maru Campos accused her of organized-crime ties, El País México reports.
Reporting and context
Morena leader Ariadna Montiel said Tuesday she plans legal action against Chihuahua Governor Maru Campos over accusations linking her to organized crime, according to El País México. Montiel said her complaint would include reputational harm, slander and gender-based political violence.
The announcement followed a LatinUs interview in which Campos accused Montiel of criminal ties and said she would prevent candidates or parties linked to drug trafficking from entering Chihuahua. Montiel called the accusations lies and said authorities should act, despite her initial reluctance to pursue litigation.
El País México reported that Morena would also support Cruz Pérez Cuéllar in an electoral complaint he had filed. The outlet identifies him as the figure who will lead the party into next year’s Chihuahua elections. Montiel accused Campos of acting as a campaign chief for the PAN rather than as governor, citing Campos’s prediction that her party would win.
The dispute has widened a confrontation over an April operation against drug laboratories in Chihuahua involving CIA agents. El País reports that César Jáuregui, then the state prosecutor, was subsequently detained on a treason accusation over allegedly allowing U.S. agents into Mexico. The outlet says he is in pretrial detention at Altiplano prison in the State of Mexico.
Campos’s account of a tense September 19 meeting with President Claudia Sheinbaum at Ciudad Juárez airport further escalated the dispute. According to the report, Campos acknowledged that Jáuregui was responsible for the operation and had withheld information from her. Both officials raised their voices. Responding to the disclosure, Sheinbaum stressed that the exchange was between two public officials and said she had not wanted to recount it publicly.
The report also describes a separate casino investigation involving Jáuregui. Federal Attorney General Ernestina Godoy said Friday that Campos had told her of suspected corruption involving casinos operated through front persons. On Monday, state prosecutors confirmed an investigation into the former prosecutor’s alleged links to irregular casino businesses.
Original reporting: El País México.