The clock is ticking for the Tabasco Prosecutor’s Office
A crucial deadline passed on Tuesday. The three-month extension that the State Attorney General’s Office had to close the complementary investigation against Hernán Bermúdez Requena, alias ‘El Abuelo’, expired without further extensions.
Now, the judicial clock restarts with a shorter and more definitive countdown. The Tabasco prosecutor’s office has 15 business days to present the formal accusation. That is, you must build your case with all the concrete evidence and accusations against the former Secretary of Public Security of the state.
Bermúdez Requena, alleged leader of ‘La Barredora’, remains imprisoned in the Altiplano prison. He is being investigated for serious crimes: criminal association, extortion and express kidnapping. His case is a political time bomb because it connects a former high-level official with the shadows of organized crime.
The judicial process began in September of last year, when a control judge based in Villahermosa determined to link it to the process.
That first period of investigation ended in December, but the Prosecutor’s Office requested and obtained an extension. That extension is the one that has just expired. There is no more extra time.
What comes next is the moment of truth for prosecutors. They have to move from the investigation phase to the formal accusation phase. They must present a document so solid that it convinces the judge that there are elements to take Bermúdez Requena to trial.
If they do not achieve this in these two working weeks, the case could falter. It is enormous pressure on an institution that is in the spotlight for investigating one of its own, a former security chief.
The judicial theater enters its final act before the trial. All eyes are on Villahermosa to see if the Prosecutor’s Office has the evidence or if the case slips through its fingers.
