Mexico Issues UK Diplomatic Complaint over Karime Macias Asylum

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio speaks to Henry Bonsu for Times Radio, + Extras 

Transcript

Announcer 0:01

Across the UK. On DAB Digital Radio. On the Free Times Radio app. And via your smart speaker.

Henry Bonsu 0:13

Ed Vasey on Times Radio with Times Holidays. Ed Bonsu. Sorry, Henry Vasey. No, no, it's Henry Bonsu here. It's the Thursday night. Let's go to Mexico now, where President Claudia Scheinbaum has said her government will send a formal letter of complaint to the UK to challenge the asylum given to the wife of a former state governor accused of corruption. Karime Macias is the ex-wife of Javier Duarte, a former governor wanted for extradition to Mexico for allegedly siphoning millions from the state. Well, let's find out more about this from Latin America correspondent Jon Bonfiglio. Hello, Jon. Now I hadn't heard of uh Karime Macias. Um I just I had heard of Javier Duarte. Can you tell us more? How well known are they in Mexico?

Jon Bonfiglio 0:58

Yeah, Javier Duarte is one of the most infamous corruption cases of the last generation in Mexico. And Karime Macías is his wife. It's interesting because there's been a disparity in news coverage at this end of things. It's been wall-to-wall coverage of Karime Macías being in London for a few years now. And of course, this the recent uh issue with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum issuing a note of complaint to the UK authorities. And Javier Duarte still in prison on uh nine-year sentence for wide-ranging corruption um offences, is the sort of the bête noir of a particular generation of impunity, uh, often regarded as being the sort of the festering uh generation. There's actually an infamous photo in Mexico taken in late 2012 with then president of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto, where he's surrounded by various governors um of the state of Mexico from his party. And it's it's it this photo is infamous because uh almost all of those in the photo uh have uh since been accused of corruption, and uh too many to count are not now either in prison for corruption offences, have fled or in hiding, have been executed or have died under questionable circumstances. And among those in the photo is Javier Duarte, governor of Veracruz between 2010 and 2016, 2016, who was then married to Karime Macías, now being given political asylum in London.

Henry Bonsu 2:17

Right. I'm just wondering on on what grounds she was given this asylum, given that she is a fugitive from justice, and is it only uh President Sheinbaum who's been trying to get her back, or have previous leaders been doing so uh done so?

Jon Bonfiglio 2:32

Um so the um the the reason why she's been given um political asylum is is unclear.

Henry Bonsu 2:40

Yeah.

Jon Bonfiglio 2:40

Uh she's undoubtedly been supported by a robust, well-financed legal team and has benefited from clearly a number of errors on the part of the Mexican authorities, including the sort of expiry of an arrest warrant. But that in and of itself doesn't sort of uh lead to to the awarding of political asylum. There's also suggestions made by investigative reporter from Veracruz, Alejandro Aguirre, of Macias benefiting from establishment support in in the United Kingdom. But he doesn't give any more uh details, of course, understandably given the threats that many journalists in Mexico are under. I do think it is a little revealing that sort of the timeline of Macias's time in um uh in the UK, because she disappeared soon after when Javier Duarte um on leaving office was expelled from uh his party and was then immediately sort of charged with corruption and illicit enrichment, and he was then arrested a year later in Guatemala, and then we knew that you know the process that we know of conviction um uh proceeded. His wife then also disappeared. Like nobody knew where she was, uh, and she was at the time also accused of of embezzlement. She disappeared from view, and then she emerged in London in 2018, where she was uh where she was photographed. She was basically spied upon by members of uh by Mexicans in London and recorded and photographed. Um, and then um British authorities actually arrested her in 2019 on an extradition request, uh, but she was released paying bail of £150,000. And then in 2022, a court upheld the extradition request, but appeals from her team, from her legal team, then halted the process. And this is where it becomes really opaque. And then it's at that point that she was granted asylum last year, which has now led to the official complaint being filed by the Mexican government.

Henry Bonsu 4:21

Ah, thanks for taking us through that, uh, Jon. Meanwhile, Mexico and El Salvador have announced major cocaine seizures, and this, of course, is against the backdrop of the US putting pressure on them and continuing uh their lethal strikes or extrajudicial killings uh people have been describing. I think eleven more people have been killed. But a seizure, uh a joint seizure altogether between the two of 10 tons of cocaine.

Jon Bonfiglio 4:45

Yeah, I mean, this um seizures of cocaine are actually relatively unusual at this end of things. We we sort of see them a fair bit over either in the Atlantic or in uh or in Europe, but actually on off the coast of say Mexico, El Salvador, Central America, Colombia, uh Venezuela, not so much. This seems to be a direct um attempt, certainly on the part of Mexico, to sort of stem these accusations that Mexico is doing very little to control uh organized crime and to sort of um uh attempt to place a halt on the ongoing strikes on fishing vessels that uh that take place in the Eastern Pacific and in the Southern Caribbean.

Henry Bonsu 5:22

Yeah, I'm just looking at uh El Salvador's Navy announcing the largest drug seizure in the country's history: 6.6 tons of cocaine. You can imagine what that might mean.

Jon Bonfiglio 5:34

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, uh I I'm relatively sort of um skeptical of these seizures at the best of times because you know, given the statistics of drug flow and the power that these groups uh have, I mean, if you I regularly cite the fact that the the annual equivalent GDP of cocaine is the equivalent GDP of a small country, and that's just one drug in and amongst you know scores of other drugs, um, that it's it's it's relatively unlikely that these things just happen through sheer policing alone.

Henry Bonsu 6:05

Right. And then when it comes to President Trump, who last week, I think you and I discussed it, said he was uh keen to go to Venezuela and he loves uh the now interim president, um Delcy Rodriguez. Um he thinks she's great, doing a great job. Um, any more on that yet? I mean, do we know when it's gonna happen?

Jon Bonfiglio 6:23

No, I mean we move as we know with Donald Trump, we move rapidly from one story, one declaration to uh to the next. Uh there's no concrete details as to when uh that will happen. Interestingly, Delcy Rodriguez of Venezuela has now, and um and uh President Gustavo Pedro in Colombia, neighboring Colombia, have now announced that they will meet on the on the their shared border between the two countries to to uh to discuss uh an array of issues, including sort of uh militarism and the flow of of drugs there. So that again that also seems to be a sort of um uh an attempt to um to sort of uh to encourage Donald Trump uh in the North to uh to see that there are developments uh being undertaken in uh in the north of South America.

Henry Bonsu 7:04

Well let's see if he gets the memo, Jon. Thank you very much indeed for joining us, Jon Bonfiglio, Latin America Correspondent, with me Henry Bonsu on Times Radio.

Jon Bonfiglio 7:12

Just one bit of context to add to that uh interview with uh Henry Bonsu, and then just another quick related story. Uh just as um as regards the broader sense of corruption in in Mexico. Last week Transparency International published its latest corruption perception index, in which Mexico scored 27 out of 100 um and is marked 141st out of a total of 182 countries evaluated. Um and corruption in the country remains sadly ubiquitous as a result of a a number of factors, and these factors would be uh institutional weakness, the power uh of government is limited, especially outside of the main cities. Um one we all know about uh and to talk about all too regularly, the infiltration of organized crime in politics and then the absence of transparency. And as we've just um spoken about with regards to uh Karime Macias, a lack of uh effective accountability. And then just one other news story from today, uh as regards Donald Trump's Board of Peace uh meeting summit, which is taking place in the USA, Mexico's president Claudio Sheinbaum declined the invitation to join, citing the omission of uh any per Palestinian representative. So actually, quite an interesting choice of reason, uh I think, because it's not a direct criticism of the board or skeptic or uh or demonstrates uh skepticism. It is very specific and it's and it's actionable. And as we've spoken about many times before with Claudia Sheinbaum, it's she has a tough balancing act to stay true to her political principles at the same time as correcting President Trump's regular inaccuracies as regards Mexico, uh, continually underscore the country's sovereignty, uh, and of course maintain Mexico's crucial trade relation relations with uh with the USA and it's trying to have them not be battered by the winds that come from uh the USA and all at the same time do all of that whilst not uh inviting aggression or intervention.