Justice

Former Presidents Peña Nieto, Calderón Fear García Luna's Trial Revelations

A trial like the one in 2018 when El Chapo was convicted could be very problematic to the former presidents.

 The situation around Felipe Calderón and Enrique Pena Nieto is very similar: both former presidents believe that the worst case scenario would have been for Calderón's former Security Secretary Genaro García Luna, detained last week near Dallas under drug trafficking charges, to plead guilty in the U.S. and become a Justice Department protected witness. However, on Friday the former Secretary plead not guilty, he will stand trial in New York, where explosive revelations could follow.

At the moment Peña Nieto is in Spain and since the arrest of García Luna has had long conversations with his political operator Emilio Gamboa, his former legal counsel Virgilio Andrade, and his top legal adviser Humberto Castillejos.

From those talks, it is clear that the most disturbing fiber for Peña and Calderón - who has reinvented himself as the leader of the opposition to advance the presidential bid of his wife Margarita Zavala - is the 2012 presidential race and the role that García Luna played in those

From those talks, it is clear that the most disturbing fiber for Peña and Calderón - who has reinvented himself as the leader of the opposition to advance the presidential bid of his wife Margarita Zavala - is the 2012 presidential race and the role that García Luna played in these exchanges of favors and complicity that resulted in Peña Nieto winning the presidency and the presidential candidate Josefina Vázquez Mota losing. Above all, they are worried of García Luna's communications with two major players of Peña Nieto's campaign: Miguel Ángel Osorio -who would go on to become Secretary of the Interior- and Emilio Lozoya, who is in hiding after his role as director of Pemex under Peña Nieto.

The other major loser of the 2012 election was current Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who accused the political establishment of electoral fraud against him, the same accusation he made when Calderón won in 2006.

Peña's surroundings are on high alert for an inquiry by the Federal Superior Audit Office, the Mexican Government watchdog, which is investigating alleged corruption in the construction of prisons ordered by García Luna from the Secretariat of Public Security. That story intersects with the 2012 campaign. The amount of expenditure reached $30 billion pesos and several construction companies linked to politicians from the State of Mexico were involved. Before becoming president, Peña Nieto was governor of the State of Mexico.

Garcia Luna's support for the campaign of the former PRI president also explains the closeness that the former official had with officials of the government of Peña Nieto throughout his term, where García Luna made millions through his security consultancy firm based in Miami.