Four Case Files and Two Crimes: Campeche Prosecutor's Office Backs Stripping 'Alito' of Immunity
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Two former aides of the PRI leader were just arrested as the case, involving over 83 million pesos in alleged diversions, has stalled in the Chamber of Deputies since 2022.

This article by Alfonso López Dávila originally appeared in the August 14, 2026 edition of SinEmbargo, an independent Mexican digital news site.

Mexico City, August 14 (SinEmbargo).— The request to strip Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas of his immunity gained new momentum with the recent arrests of two former collaborators of the PRI member, identified by the Campeche Prosecutor’s Office in one of the investigations that underpin the file submitted to the Chamber of Deputies. The case remains pending resolution, while state authorities have advanced in their inquiries into alleged diversions of funds committed during his term as Governor.

The arrests of Carlos Alberto Medina Hernández, who served as director general of Social Communication for Moreno Cárdenas, and Luis Antonio Espinosa Campos, accountant and financial operator for Emigdio Gabriel Moreno Cárdenas, tie them to contracts with the Mayavisión television channel.

According to the file from the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Corruption of the State of Campeche, submitted to the Secretariat General of the Chamber of Deputies at 2:00 p.m. on July 23, 2025, Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas is involved in four investigation files for the crimes of improper exercise of duties and diversion of public funds.

These are investigations into the construction of the Plaza Colosio, for 18.2 million pesos; the simulation of services at the Campeche Secretariat of Public Security, for 27.2 million pesos; advertising contracts with the local broadcaster Mayavisión, for 14.1 million pesos; and the hiring of a diving company reconverted into a tax consultancy, for the Comprehensive Port Administration of Campeche, for 23.8 million pesos.

The Prosecutor’s Office document, dated July 23, 2025 in San Francisco de Campeche, was addressed to the Secretariat General of the Chamber of Deputies and formally requests a declaration of procedure against Moreno Cárdenas. The document identifies the files CI/127-2024/FECCCAM, CI/094-2022/FECCCAM and its consolidated files CI/119-2022/FECCCAM, CI/252-2023/FECCCAM and CI/86-2023/FECCCAM.

The petition was filed by prosecutors from the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Corruption of Campeche, who designated an address in San Francisco de Campeche to hear and receive notifications and authorized various officials of the Prosecutor’s Office itself to intervene in the proceeding.

The document holds that the request is based on Article 16, third paragraph, and Article 111 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, as well as on provisions of the National Code of Criminal Procedure. The purpose is for the Chamber of Deputies to determine whether there are grounds to remove the Senator’s procedural immunity and allow prosecutorial authorities to proceed criminally against him.

Page from the Campeche prosecutor's file against Alejandro Moreno

According to the file from the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Corruption of the State of Campeche, Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas is involved in four investigation files for the crimes of improper exercise of duties and diversion of public funds. Photo: Especial

The process to strip Moreno Cárdenas of his immunity did not begin with the file currently in the hands of the Chamber of Deputies. The removal of the PRI leader’s immunity has been raised on several occasions since 2022, but so far none of the requests has concluded with a resolution by the full chamber.

On August 16, 2022, the Campeche Prosecutor’s Office requested for the first time the removal of Moreno Cárdenas’s immunity, then a federal deputy and national president of the PRI. That petition was based on a file that accused him of illicit enrichment, embezzlement, improper use of powers, tax fraud, and money laundering during his term as Governor.

On September 3 of that year, the Chamber of Deputies approved the formation of the Instructing Section, the body responsible for analyzing requests for declaration of procedure. However, the proceeding practically froze from then on.

The file had various moments of reactivation linked to the political relationship between the PRI and Morena. In September 2022, the PRI caucus backed a constitutional reform promoted by Morena to extend the participation of the Armed Forces in public security tasks until 2028. The initiative had been introduced by PRI deputy Yolanda de la Torre Valdez, a close associate of Moreno Cárdenas.

Months later, in December 2022, the PRI aligned with the opposition to block the electoral reform promoted by Morena. The immunity-removal process moved again briefly, but again it did not reach a resolution. These movements fueled the perception that the request could be used as an instrument of political negotiation.

Alejandro "Alito" Moreno

Alejandro “Alito” joined the PRI at the start of Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s term.

The complaints against Moreno Cárdenas, meanwhile, continued to pile up. In May 2022, the then Governor of Campeche, Layda Sansores San Román, filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic for alleged illicit enrichment stemming from irregularities in financial movements and transfers between accounts related to the former governor.

On April 27, 2024, then Morena deputy Miguel Prado de los Santos filed another complaint with the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Corruption of the FGR. In it he accused Moreno Cárdenas of a possible diversion of public funds amounting to 3.941 billion pesos during his administration in Campeche, in addition to citing possible crimes of influence peddling, money laundering, and operations with funds of illicit origin.

In November 2024, deputies from Morena, the PT, and the PVEM in the Campeche Congress introduced a resolution to urge the Instructing Section of the Chamber of Deputies to report on the status of the immunity-removal request and to conclude the procedures necessary to resolve the proceeding initiated in 2022.

The new Legislature announced days later that it would take up more than 300 pending files, among them the one corresponding to Moreno Cárdenas. In 2025, the Campeche Prosecutor’s Office formally withdrew the first request and filed a new one based on five crimes and various investigation files. The Instructing Section then began requesting additional information from both the state Prosecutor’s Office and the FGR.

One of the lines appearing in the file is related to the advertising contracts awarded during Moreno Cárdenas’s government to the local broadcaster Mayavisión.

According to the investigations cited in the file, the state government’s Social Communication area allegedly allocated 97 million pesos to Mayavisión, owned by Difusora de Comunicación del Sureste, S.A. de C.V., a company founded in 2016 by an advisor to the former governor’s brother.

The authorities stated that they could not locate the documentation or the material evidence necessary to prove that the services contracted by the state government had actually been provided. For that reason, the inquiries focused on establishing whether part of those operations were simulated.

Of the 97 million pesos disbursed by Moreno Cárdenas’s government, at least 36 million would be related to the alleged diversion for which Carlos Alberto Medina Hernández and Luis Antonio Espinosa Campos are currently under investigation.

Alejandro "Alito" Moreno

The financial advisor is under investigation for his alleged participation in the diversion of public funds during the PRI member’s term in Campeche. Photo: X @alitomorenoc

Medina Hernández held the position of director of Social Communication during Moreno Cárdenas’s administration and was arrested at around 9:48 p.m. on August 11 in the Barrio de Guadalupe neighborhood, in the capital of Campeche. The state Prosecutor’s Office reported that agents from the State Investigations Agency executed the arrest warrant.

The former official was transferred to the San Francisco Koben Social Reintegration Center, where he was placed at the disposal of a local judge, who must determine his legal status. The Prosecutor’s Office accuses him of probable responsibility in the crime of embezzlement.

A day earlier, on August 10, Luis Antonio Espinosa Campos, an accountant and representative of several companies linked to Emigdio Moreno Cárdenas, brother of Alejandro Moreno, was arrested in the Benito Juárez borough of Mexico City.

The authorities are investigating Espinosa Campos for his alleged participation in an operation to divert public funds during Moreno Cárdenas’s government. The Campeche Prosecutor’s Office’s inquiries indicate that both he and Medina Hernández would be linked to a structure in which shell companies were used to divert 36 million pesos.

The two arrests once again placed under scrutiny the operations carried out during Moreno Cárdenas’s state term and occurred while the Chamber of Deputies keeps pending its resolution on the request for a declaration of procedure.

Article 111 of the Constitution establishes that public officials who have immunity must go through a declaration-of-procedure process before criminal action can be brought against them. In this case, the state Prosecutor’s Office must sustain its request before the Chamber of Deputies, where the Instructing Section analyzes the submitted evidence.

That body may request additional information from the Prosecutor’s Office, dismiss the petition if it considers there are insufficient grounds, or draft an opinion favorable to the removal of procedural immunity. Should the opinion advance, it falls to the full Chamber of Deputies to resolve by absolute majority.

In March 2026, Hugo Eric Flores Cervantes, president of the Instructing Section, announced that the file would be taken up again and explained that the legislative body would have to decide between requesting more information from the Prosecutor’s Office, dismissing the petition, or advancing toward an opinion to strip Moreno Cárdenas of his immunity.

However, the proceeding stalled again. By June 2026, the file remained without a definitive resolution, and SinEmbargo’s Data Unit requested an interview with Flores Cervantes to learn the status of the proceeding and the reasons why it had not concluded, but as of the close of that edition it had not received a response.

The case returned to public debate on May 25, when President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo was questioned about the pending immunity removal. The president responded that, in cases where corruption was proven, the important thing was to recover the funds.

“I can tell you what I think in these cases: better that what was stolen be returned. It’s not so much about whether a person is detained, when it is proven, a case of corruption obviously has to be proven, it’s better that what they stole be returned, that is my point of view. It’s now up to the Prosecutor’s Office. Asset forfeiture can be pursued, many things, if the person doesn’t want to return it.”

Moreno Cárdenas responded that the process against him was due to political persecution and asserted: “The persecution against me has been the favorite weapon to distract the people of Mexico from the great problems the country faces since you all have been governing.”

The PRI leader has maintained that position in the face of the accusations and has accused the federal government of using the case to attack him politically. Meanwhile, the Campeche Prosecutor’s Office maintains before the Chamber of Deputies a request based on four investigation files that cite two crimes and operations totaling more than 83 million pesos.

The file, which accumulates investigations begun in different years, thus remains before the decision of the Instructing Section. The recent arrests of two former collaborators of Moreno Cárdenas, tied to one of the lines of investigation, once again placed the case at the center of the political and judicial dispute, but the removal of the PRI senator’s immunity still depends on a decision by the Chamber of Deputies.

The post Four Case Files and Two Crimes: Campeche Prosecutor’s Office Backs Stripping ‘Alito’ of Immunity appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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