A deputy for the Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI), Ricardo Ramírez Nieto, said that on Friday, March 25, the Sinaloa state deputy Lucero Guadalupe Sánchez López will need to respond to claims that she used false identifying documents. She faces legislative proceedings to strip her of her legislative immunity in response to a request by the national Attorney General’s Office (PGR).
Ramírez said that Sánchez, who faces charges for using false identifying documents, was given seven days to respond when she was notified of the charges.
“We asked her to respond and we told her that she had seven days to respond, either in person or in writing. That time is running out and ends on Friday (March 25).”
The document that the PGR gave to members of the Chamber of Deputies, outlining Sanchez’s offences and requesting that she be stripped of immunity, is being kept secret and is only available to the four-member committee charged with evaluating it, of which Ramírez forms a part.
If Sánchez does not attend the hearing on Friday, the process to remove her immunity will continue. On Saturday, March 26, a thirty-day period will begin during which parties will present evidence.
Ramírez explained that the process to remove immunity is necessary for the PGR to be able to act, even if the crime that Sánchez is accused of is a minor one.
“No matter how minor the crime is, legislative immunity prevents the PGR from acting. Whenever a deputy, in the exercise of their office, commits a crime, serious or minor, they need to be stripped of immunity, so that the government can exercise its legal authority,” he said.
The PGR is investigating Lucero Guadalupe Sánchez López, who is accused of using false identifying documents to visit accused drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Loera in the Altiplano prison in Almoloya de Juárez, State of Mexico.
No matter how minor the crime is, legislative immunity prevents the PGR from acting. Whenever a deputy, in the exercise of their office, commits a crime, serious or minor, they need to be stripped of immunity, so that the government can exercise its legal authority.”
-Ricardo Ramírez, federal Deputy
