After weeks of speculation, Jalisco Attorney General Luis Carlos Najera has stepped down from his post as the state’s senior law enforcement official.
Monday’s announcement came amid growing doubts about his ability to outsmart the violent Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), responsible for a series of deadly attacks across the state since the turn of the year.
While Najera said it was his choice alone to resign from the helm of the Fiscalia General del Estado (FGE), Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval had an immediate replacement on hand, suggesting the change was prearranged.
Filling the high-profile position is state Labor Secretary Jesus Eduardo Alamguer Ramirez, who was described by Government Secretary Roberto Lopez Lara as “a prestigious lawyer who knows the law.”
Little time was wasted on protocols, with Alamguer meeting behind closed doors with state legislators Thursday before Congress ratified his appointment as the new fiscal (attorney general) by a vote of 33 in favor and one abstention.
Alamguer, a former state president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), has won plaudits for his work at the Labor Ministry over the past two years. But, as some security experts pointed out this week, he will need to take a crash course in policing and law enforcement if he is to effect any significant operational changes at the FGE, the revamped state law-enforcement agency that replaced the Procuraduria General de Justicia when Sandoval took office in March 2013.
That may not be Sandoval’s major objective. Having a political figure at the FGE’s helm who is able to work more closely with federal authorities and explain strategy more lucidly, should diffuse the criticism of those who say policies overseen by Najera, such as the introduction of the elite, higher-paid FUR regional force, have produced few results.
The appointment of Najera, a 25-year police veteran who worked his way up the career ladder from a beat cop, went against tradition in Jalisco, where attorney generals have usually been close political allies of governors. His esteem began to rise during terms as public security chief in Guadalajara municipal governments between 2001 and 2006. He served as head of state public security in the administration of Governor Emilio Gonzalez Marquez (2007-2013), and was kept on and promoted to the position of attorney general by Sandoval.
Lacking the wily diplomatic skills of seasoned politicos, Najera nonetheless instilled public confidence in that he had no clear political affiliation, spoke in straightforward language and was viewed as incorruptible.
He made efforts to reach out to his constituents, visiting with the foreign community in the lakeside area several times in the wake of crime waves and serious incidents.
Characterized by a fierce desire to implement the latest techniques in policing, Najera has taken many courses abroad in diverse specialist areas of criminology, including counterterrorism and the use of explosives.
Several recent developments, however, have made Najera’s continuation in his role look untenable. While no one can lay the blame for the rise of the CJNG at his door, Najera’s detractors say his tactics have not helped to curb their activities. Far from being a highly trained elite force, the FUR has been accused of unpreparedness to face the well-armed CJNG. It’s also feared that the governments and police forces of many small Jalisco towns have been corrupted by CJNG money or extortion, while the federal government seems unwilling to share its operational secrets with state authorities. The appointment of Alamguer could be viewed as an attempt to forge a closer relationship between state and federal law enforcement as CJNG leaders are hunted down.
Additionally, the PRI’s poor showing in June’s state elections have forced Sandoval’s hand to make changes in his administration. The success of the Citizen’s Movement (MC) in metro Guadalajara and other large urban areas means some inevitable adjustments as the two parties that were at each others’ throats during a savage election campaign are forced to collaborate, the governor has acknowledged.
MC’s Enrique Alfaro, the Guadalajara mayor-elect, has been a long-time critic of Najera, and the friction between the pair was not helped last week following an incident involving the driver of Alfaro’s wife, Lorena Martinez.
According to police reports, several shots were fired at Eliseo Serrano Perez as he got into an SUV after he had enjoyed a meal in a restaurant in the Providencia neighborhood on the night of July 3. Serrano Perez received three bullet wounds and was rushed to the nearby San Javier Hospital, where his condition is described as stable. Martinez was not present at the time.
In a briefing shortly after the incident, Najera told reporters that the shooting was an attempted carjacking.
Visiting his employee in hospital the next day, Alfaro slammed the attorney general for his “irresponsibility” in “jumping to conclusions in five minutes.”
Visibly upset, Alfaro said he has “received many threats” but did not “live in fear.”
Alfaro also squashed initial media reports that Serrano Perez was his wife’s armed bodyguard. “He is an employee, a driver and does not belong to any law-enforcement agency,” he stressed.