There is so much speculation about the state of Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero’s health that even the Attorney General’s office doesn’t know exactly what’s going on with him. There is no certainty even at the highest levels of the prosecutor’s office about the seriousness of his illness, and not even what the situation actually is. What has been confirmed is that during 2022 he frequently traveled to the United States on National Defense Secretariat aircraft, very discreetly, most of the time on flights logged as if he were carrying a diplomatic bag.
Assessing the prosecutor’s state of health has been difficult, even for his colleagues in the prosecutor’s office, because for almost his entire six-year term, Gertz Manero has been unable to control his health, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. held office at home – where he received his American counterparts. An opportunity – a practice he continued. Agreements with special prosecutors and some official visits are made in an office that is in one of his residences in Mexico City.
Throughout this time, people who have seen it have described it in diametrically opposite ways. Weak and sick, a man who visited him several months ago at the ABC Hospital asked for a strong and good complexion, as seen at a small family celebration in a public place in Puebla. Federal officials confirm that Gertz Manero has never been hospitalized, at least since he became a prosecutor, and that, with the exception of one occasion in Boston late last September, His visit has been for two to three days, where he stayed for about a week, undergoing checkups.
In addition to Boston, prosecutors have been to medical appointments in Houston and Baltimore, where the famed Johns Hopkins University Medical Center is located, where, according to public information, he had surgery in January for a spinal condition. The revelation of this intervention led President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to confirm in late January that he had, in fact, been interfered with for “repairs”, but that he was working.
While it is not known how hard he works, communication between the president and the prosecutor remains fluid, and, either directly or through the president’s private secretary Alejandro Escher, is the most powerful figure in the National Palace after López Obrador. Through Esquer, he often sends the President observation cards on various aspects of public affairs and some policy recommendations, although he usually deals directly with the most sensitive issues.
One of the issues recently dealt with, via Esquire, was related to the trial in Brooklyn of former Federal Public Security Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna, where the president expected him to exonerate former President Felipe Calderón. Card noted that the evidence against GarcÃa Luna was not – so far, at least – strong, and the fact that he had refused to plead guilty or negotiated with the Justice Department indicated that he thought that he was likely to be found not guilty. strong.
Another card was linked to a meeting with the President of the Supreme Court of Justice, Norma Piña, the Interior Secretary, Adán Augusto López, and the Presidential Legal Adviser, Estella RÃos, about three weeks earlier. At the time the press reported that there was a disagreement. Gertz Manero told him, based on what was reported to him by two of his colleagues, that although the disagreement occurred, it was not as harsh as was highlighted in the press, however, due to the position of the two interlocutors. The inconvenience was the parties, who didn’t really leave a door open.
Gertz Manero occupies many of the positions left by the presidential legal advisor, Julio Scherer, when he resigned from office in August 2021, although López Obrador’s increased presence and use of the interior secretary have limited him in the policy arena. Is done. Nevertheless, the prosecutor has influence at the National Palace, where the president listens to him, despite the fact that he does not always respond to their requests, such as last year, when he offered as Donald Trump’s interlocutor that López Obrador would like him to win the presidential election next year, or the head of government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, and his constant criticisms of his security strategy, whose head, Omar GarcÃa Harfuch, has had problems with prosecutors since the beginning. of year duration.
The types of cases Gertz Manero sees with the president reflect the reach and closeness between the two, who have every time a public expression of full support, López Obrador’s ability to avoid and deflect criticism against arbitrariness and shortcomings. It seems necessary to keep your body. prosecutor.
The way President Gertz takes the things brought up by Manero, it can be argued that there are limits to the force of his word, and López Obrador discharges many of the political functions on the Interior Secretary, with whom the prosecutor has a good relationship However, the prosecutor is a fundamental piece in the President’s gear, and an asset in the President’s strategies. For example, the reactivation of the Colosseo case, proposed by Gertz Manero late last year, as a distraction from the underlying problems to which López Obrador has no answers or solutions.
The public perception of Gertz Manero, that of a powerful man who, despite not producing results and having used all resources as a prosecutor for personal disputes – so far without success -, has caused an unusual interest in his health. Made What would it mean to lose such a functional bishop, a concern certainly shared by López Obrador.
