Governor accused of political persecution // To avoid arrest, they restored the constitutional immunity abrogated in 2016.
Campeche, Campeche – The Morena party faction in the local Congress fractured after 10 of its 16 members broke with Governor Layda Sansores, whom they accused of political persecution. To avoid arrest, they reinstated the constitutional immunity – repealed in 2016 – that protected them from arbitrary application of the law.
On Sunday, after the session to install the ordinary period of sessions of the 65th State Legislature, the surroundings of the Legislative Palace were cordoned off by ministerial police from the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE); it was stated that there was an arrest warrant against at least two deputies, one of them the parliamentary leader, José Antonio Jiménez.
During that session, Jiménez denounced being the target of political persecution. He stated that “dignity is neither negotiated nor managed, even when doing so is costly and painful,” and maintained that “transformation cannot be built on impositions and persecution.”
In response to publications from media outlets aligned with Governor Sansores, in which he was accused of being a traitor, Jiménez asserted that “resisting is not betraying, but legislating with the people in our hearts.”
In mid-December, after the state Congress received the proposed 2026 Revenue Law initiative, which considered contracting public debt for one billion pesos, Jiménez stated that the proposal would be analyzed carefully, and the Morena parliamentary group would look for alternatives to avoid indebting the people.
The president attributed the betrayal to Antonio Jiménez.
These statements contradicted Layda Sansores, who accused Jiménez of betraying the trust of those who brought him into office in November 2023, after the Morena faction dismissed its previous coordinator, Alejandro Gómez, who also had differences with the president and suffered from a terminal illness from which he died.
Although the state Congress authorized the contracting of debt by majority vote, once the deputies imposed restrictions on how that resource would be used, the differences with the governor were not resolved.
Even the state president of Morena, Érick Reyes, declared that Jiménez Gutiérrez was a traitor and accused him of causing division within the party.
In a session held last Saturday to elect the presiding officers for the current ordinary session, Morena party deputies loyal to the governor allied themselves with the Movimiento Ciudadano, PRI, PAN, PT, and PVEM caucuses to impose Movimiento Ciudadano deputy Paul Arce as president of the board. Deputy Jiménez and his nine allied legislators voted against the election, thus confirming the split.
Ministerial forces surrounded the legislative palace.
Although the Attorney General’s Office denied in a statement on Sunday that the presence of ministerial agents around the legislative palace was intended to arrest Representative Jiménez, he avoided going out into the street to avoid any risks. He barricaded himself in his offices, where he spent the night accompanied by some legislators from his party.
Furthermore, he held a session with his 10 loyal deputies to remove deputies Jorge Pérez and Verónica Roca, both loyal to the governor, from their positions as parliamentary vice-coordinators. He appointed Omar Talango and Ismael López in their place.
In addition, in a closed session, the deputies yesterday approved reforms to the Political Constitution of the State and the Organic Law of the Legislative Power to restore the constitutional immunity, which was eliminated in 2016.
No deputy wanted to confirm the approval of that constitutional reform, arguing that the law prohibits them from speaking about issues approved in closed sessions.
Jiménez did not answer reporters’ questions and left Congress escorted by deputies from his faction.
The restoration of legislative immunity directly benefits at least three local deputies, one of them the chairman of the Government and Administration Committee, José Antonio Jiménez, who is being investigated by the State Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office for alleged embezzlement. The amount he is accused of misappropriating has not been disclosed, but this is believed to be the reason the legislative building remains under constant surveillance.
Paul Alfredo Arce, a congressman from the Citizens’ Movement (MC) and current president of the state congress, was formally charged by a federal judge for alleged embezzlement during his tenure as mayor of Campeche in 2021. At that time, then-mayor Eliseo Fernández was the MC candidate for governor of Campeche. An arrest warrant has reportedly been issued against him, but it has not yet been executed.
Congressman Gaspar Nah, a member of the Morena party, is facing criminal charges from his ex-wife and children, allegedly for failing to pay child support. The investigations against him were reopened after he allied himself with a group of Morena congressmen loyal to Jiménez.
However, once the reform that restores their immunity is approved and the decree is published in the Official Gazette of the State, none of them can be arrested unless the impeachment procedure is followed.
The other possibility is that Governor Sansores exercises her right to veto the reform, in which case it would not come into effect.
Source: La Jornada
