Public Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch has been caught in a labyrinth since Wednesday, when a New York prosecutor accused Governor Ruben Rocha of alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel.
As the main liaison between Claudia Sheinbaum’s cabinet and Washington, García Harfuch faces the same dilemma as the president: cooperate with the United States or defend an ally of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
In the secretary’s case, there’s an added layer of complexity: García Harfuch has a presidential project for 2030. In the operational realm of arrests, pursuits, extraditions, and intelligence gathering, García Harfuch is an invaluable ally for the United States, but Wednesday’s scandal presents another layer of complexity because it has an unavoidable political element.
The Trump administration is also ruthless: those who don’t cooperate in capturing its targets quickly become obstructors of the neighboring country’s judicial machinery. The specter of Genaro García Luna fuels the most unsettling predictions.
The Secretary has few arguments to evade this acid test: he controls the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), the National Intelligence Center (CNI), the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), and is on the verge of launching a new police force made up of civilians.
García Harfuch knows what is already widely known in the National Palace: the evidence that will be presented against Rocha will be damning; there is even talk of photographic and video material, bank records of the governor’s relatives, properties, and, to top it all off, explosive testimony regarding the death of Héctor Melesio Cuen.
To say that there is no conclusive evidence is a political way out that does not resolve the heart of this drama. A businessman who spoke with the president summed it up last night without mincing words: the government needs a top-tier lawyer, and it needs one urgently, to counter the New York prosecutor’s office on legal grounds. Prosecutor Ulises Lara and his dubious professional credentials would not be the most suitable solution at this time.
