What is the crime of treason and what does it have to do with “El Mayo” Zambada? | International

The Mexican Attorney General's Office (FGR) has included the crime of “high treason” in its investigation into the arrest of the historic leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Amid the confusion of versions about what happened more than two weeks ago, when the drug lord was arrested on US soil along with Joaquín Guzmán López, one of the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and against the backdrop of escalating tensions in the bilateral relationship between Mexico and Washington, the war-like crime that the Attorney General's Office has put on the table has attracted attention. The crime of high treason has existed since the introduction of many laws around the world, but in Mexico it was recently modified in a context similar to that of the arrest of El Mayo.

What is treason in Mexico?

The main definition of treason is when a person “commits acts against the independence, sovereignty or integrity of the Mexican nation with the aim of subjecting it to a foreign person, group or government,” as well as those cases in which “a person is illegally deprived of his liberty in national territory with the aim of handing him over to the authorities of another country or extraditing him from Mexico for that purpose.”

This last offence was only added relatively recently to Article 123 of the Mexican Penal Code. Twenty years ago, in April 1990, doctor Humberto Álvarez Machaín was kidnapped in Guadalajara and transferred to El Paso, Texas, to stand trial for his alleged involvement in the murder of Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, an agent of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). According to the agency, Álvarez Machaín allegedly collaborated with the Guadalajara cartel to administer drugs to Camarena during his torture to keep him alive. However, in 1992 he was declared innocent and released after Judge Edward Rafeedie ruled that there was insufficient evidence against him.

Following this incident, the Mexican government added the crime of treason to its penal code to deal with anyone who kidnapped someone to take them to another country. Currently, there are at least 15 reasons a person can be charged with treason. In Mexico, a conviction for such a crime precludes the possibility of a government pardon. Penalties can range from five to 40 years and a fine of up to 50,000 Mexican pesos (US$2,633).

“El Mayo” Zambada and kidnapping allegations

On the morning of August 12, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in his morning press conference that an attempt was underway to weaken his government. He made this claim in response to the publication of a letter by El Mayo in which he claims that he was ambushed and kidnapped on the day of his arrest after arriving at a location where he was scheduled to meet with Joaquín Guzmán López, the governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya, and the former rector of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Héctor Melesio Cuén, whose murder was announced shortly after the capo's arrest.

A day after El Mayo's lawyer released the letter to the media, the Attorney General's Office released a statement saying it had “urgently” requested an investigation into Cuén's murder. It also asked the governor for information about his alleged meeting with the Sinaloa cartel boss, since El Mayo claimed in its communiqué that Cuén was killed after being kidnapped in the same place where the meeting was to take place, in Huertos del Pedregal on the outskirts of Culiacán. This contradicts the official version that the murder took place in a gas station.

El Mayo has stated that there were no negotiations for his voluntary surrender and that he was kidnapped and transferred to the United States without his consent. In his report, he stated: “On July 25, I went to the ranch and event center called Huertos del Pedregal just outside of Culiacán where the meeting was to take place. The meeting was scheduled for 11 a.m. and I arrived a little early.” He added that after greeting Héctor Cuén, whom he described as a long-time friend, he saw Guzmán López. “I have known him since childhood and he asked me to follow him. Trusting the nature of the meeting and the people involved, I followed him without hesitation. I was led to another room that was dark. As soon as I entered that room, I was ambushed. A group of men attacked me, threw me to the ground and put a dark hood over my head. They attacked me, handcuffed me and dragged me into a van. During this ordeal, I was subjected to physical abuse which resulted in severe injuries to my back, knees and wrists.”

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