Judicial Ratification of an Arrest Warrant
A federal court has definitively confirmed the arrest warrant issued in February of this year against Juan Bernardo Corona Martínez, who served as secretary of Public Security of the state of Michoacán. The judicial resolution links him to a series of serious crimes, including embezzlement, fraudulent administration, operations with resources of illicit origin (money laundering) and criminal association. This case is part of the investigation into the construction, leasing and subsequent acquisition at overprice of seven facilities for the State Police. It should be noted that the former governor of the entity, Silvano Aureoles Conejo, is also accused in the same criminal case.
Currently considered a fugitive from Mexican justice, Corona Martínez filed an appeal for protection before the Ninth District Court in Criminal Matters based in Mexico City, headed by Judge Viridiana Berenice Quiroz Ángel. The former official’s defense argued that the judicial arrest warrant violated his individual guarantees, maintaining that the control judge who issued it, Patricia Sánchez Nava of the Federal Criminal Justice Center in the Reclusorio Oriente, had not duly founded or motivated it.
Legal Basis and Rejection of Amparo
In a meticulous legal analysis, Judge Quiroz Ángel denied the protection of federal justice to the former state secretary. In his ruling, he determined that the arrest warrant in question fully complied with all the requirements and formalities established in both the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and the National Code of Criminal Procedures. The judge based her ruling by pointing out that the responsible authority did comply with the obligation to justify and explain the reasons for the claimed act. “In the case, it is estimated that, in the claimed determination, the responsible judge fulfilled the obligation to adequately found and motivate the act that is challenged,” the resolution reads verbatim.
The origin of this process dates back to a formal complaint presented by the Comptroller’s Office of the state of Michoacán before the Attorney General’s Office (FGR). The accusation of the Public Ministry of the Federation details the alleged participation of the former official in an irregular scheme for the contracting of real estate services. According to the investigation, the purchase, lease, maintenance and definitive acquisition of seven police stations located in the municipalities of Huetamo, Apatzingán, Coalcomán, Jiquilpan, Lázaro Cárdenas, Uruapan and Zitácuaro were carried out, paying prices well above the market value.
The FGR investigation maintains that these contracts were awarded to Inmobiliaria DYF, a company that, according to the investigations, lacked the experience, the necessary infrastructure and the history of properties that it had offered to be able to perform the service. This finding reinforces the hypothesis of the existence of a possible fraud on the state public treasury. The investigation file was formally initiated on February 24, 2022, after receiving the complaint presented by the Secretariat of the Michoacan Comptroller’s Office, which triggered the complex investigation that now culminates with the ratification of the arrest warrant against former secretary Corona Martínez.
This case highlights the mechanisms of accountability and judicial scrutiny over acts of possible corruption in public administration and the management of federal and state resources. The confirmation of the arrest warrant by a federal judge represents a significant step in the legal process, highlighting the importance of substantiation in judicial resolutions and rigor in the investigation of complex crimes of a property nature against the treasury.
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