Court orders FGR to investigate crimes of the “Dirty War” because they are imprescriptible

MEXICO CITY (apro).- The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) ordered the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to investigate crimes that could have been committed during the “Dirty War”, taking into consideration that they may constitute crimes against humanity and, therefore, are imprescriptible.

By a majority of four votes, the members of the First Chamber of the Court endorsed the project of Minister Juan Luis González Alcátara Carrancá who proposed protecting four women, relatives of the guerrilla Lucio Cabañas, supposedly detained, psychologically tormented and tortured during that period.

These are the sisters Juana, Rosa Elena and Irene Nava Cabañas and Flavia Cabañas Gómez, who at the time of the events was 17 years old, who reported that they were victims of crimes committed by agents of the defunct Federal Directorate of Security (DFS).

The case came to the Court after in January 2022 the FGR decided not to take criminal action for the events reported by the victims under the argument that the crimes had prescribed and that at the time the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court so that the public ministry can establish an exercise of criminal action.

However, in his project, Minister González Alcántara Carrancá pointed out that by the 1970s, the time in which the events occurred, there were other international instruments that established which behaviors are crimes against humanity, so that the FGR can take action. penal.

“The decision not to pursue criminal action under the argument that, to the possible crimes against humanity committed during the “Dirty War”, the figures of prescription, atypicality and non-retroactivity are applicable translates into a transgression of the right to the truth. “said the minister.

“The State must ensure not only that the authorities in charge of the investigation (Public Ministry) have at their disposal the necessary means to carry out those actions, but that they are actually used to carry out the investigations promptly. Therefore, the lack of investigation will normally imply the violation of the right to the truth.”

For this reason, the Court ordered to modify a ruling of the protection that had been granted to the complainants so that a better investigation could be carried out in which other authorities collaborate with the federal public ministry.

Consequently, the FGR will have 12 more months to determine again whether or not to exercise criminal action with the elements it gathers and every two months it must inform the protection judge of the development of the investigations.

This does not prevent the FGR from again dictating a non-exercise of criminal action, but this must be based on the fact that there is insufficient evidence regarding the reported facts.