Mexico prosecutor apparently recorded trying to jail in-laws

MEXICO CITY — A shocking, newly released series of recordings appears to show Mexico’s attorney general cursing about a Supreme Court justice who won’t agree with his demand to keep the prosecutor’s in-laws locked up in prison.

A voice identified as that of Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero is heard on the audio, posted by newspapers Friday, calling his niece an “asshole” and asking an assistant how they can use appeals to avoid her being released.

The recordings suggest Gertz Manero got an advance copy of a proposed but not yet approved Supreme Court opinion that apparently recommended freeing his niece and also that he engaged in a personal vendetta to punish his brother’s wife and her family, who he blamed for letting his brother die.

They also suggest the country’s top prosecutor doesn’t know much about the law: The person in the recordings asks an assistant how the appeals process works.

Gertz Manero’s office did not comment on whether the recordings were genuine, but did tell local media it was investigating the leak of the recordings, suggesting they were real.

The prosecutor blames his in-laws for the death of his brother, Federico Gertz Manero, in 2015, apparently of natural causes at the age of 82. Gertz Manero claims the family — his brother’s common-law wife, 95, and her children — did not give him adequate medical care.

Because of her age, the older woman is not in prison, but her daughter, Alejandra Cuevas, 69, has been in prison for more than a year, awaiting trial on charges of “homicide by omission.”

Asked about the recordings by The Associated Press, Cuevas’ son, Alonso Castillo, said they showed systematic violations by Gertz Manero’s office.

“There are no end of crimes here,” Castillo said of the recordings. “One of the most serious is that the court appears to have sent the opinion to the attorney general’s office. That is a crime because they are confidential” documents.

“There is influence peddling, abuse of power,” Castillo said. “In other words, the implications of these recordings are tremendous.”

Most attorneys general anywhere in the world would have been required to recuse themselves from a case in which they had such obvious personal connections. Gertz Manero claimed his office managed the case like any other, at arm’s length, something the recordings would clearly contradict.

The in-laws have spent years appealing the case, and it eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, which is scheduled to publicly discuss it on March 14. Mexican law requires the defense and prosecution to be given equal access to such documents, something that apparently didn’t happen if the recordings are valid.

Worse, the recordings suggest Gertz Manero or his staff had discussed the ruling personally with members of the Supreme Court.

Gertz Manero has been accused before of misusing his position.

He has been trying to lock up 31 academics in a maximum security prison because he claims they improperly received about $2.5 million in government science funding years ago. The laws at the time allowed such funding, and the researchers say it wasn’t misspent.

The academic board involved had previously recommended not approving Gertz Manero’s request for formal recognition as a leading academic.

Meanwhile, Gertz Manero has failed to convict any of the top figures implicated in a big corruption case at the state-run Pemex oil company that almost bankrupted the firm.

At one point, Gertz Manero threatened to bring charges against U.S. prosecutors for their investigation of Mexico’s former defense secretary in a drug trafficking case. Gertz Manero’s office quickly cleared the former official after a summary investigation.

So far, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has supported Gertz Manero, who he cannot directly fire; that would require a congressional procedure. But critics say the attorney general’s actions belie the president’s key promise to root out governmental corruption.