Luis Carlos Vega Pámanes, the president of Jalisco’s Supreme Court, asked for a leave of absence Thursday after newspapers that morning ran stories revealing his criminal past.
The shocking disclosure comes on the heels of a torrid period for the state’s most senior judge. In a recently leaked taped conversation with Guadalajara Police Commissioner Salvador Caro, Vega Pámanes can be heard asking for the release of two suspects detained by municipal police for possession of illegal firearms.
The release of this tape prompted calls for Vega Pámanes to face legal action – in particular a juicio politico (political trial) – for attempting to corrupt the judicial process.
Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval had previously shown reluctance to comment on the controversy, but did not hold back on Thursday.
“For the wellbeing of our institutions, (Vega Pámanes) should step down,” he tweeted around midday following the earlier reports detailing criminal incidents involving Vega Pámanes dating back 32 years.
That morning, newspapers from the Grupo Reforma chain, including Guadalajara Spanish-language daily Mural, reported that in 1984, Pámanes, then 20 years old, and another man stole a car at gunpoint from the parking lot of a university faculty in the city. As they made their getaway, the pair ran over two women, one of whom died. According to newspaper reports at the time, the two men fired on police as they gave chase and were eventually arrested.
Although the incident made the pages of local newspapers, there only appears to be a record of Vega Pámanes’ arrest and, strangely, nothing relating to a subsequent prosecution.
Later in the day, Sandoval asked Attorney General Eduardo Almaguer to go back into the archives and take another look at the three-decade-old incident.
On Thursday, Vega Pámanes issued a written statement saying that he was taking a leave of absence although it gave no clue as to his whereabouts.