Alejandra Cuevas with Infobae: “Gertz Manero wanted to break my spirit, but he lost”

Alejandra Cuevas appears with a calm temper. If you don't know her story, you would hardly believe that she is a 69-year-old woman who has just regained her freedom after 528 days in prison on charges of a crime that does not even exist. Maybe because he hasn't finished assimilating everything that's happening to him yet. Or it's probably the opposite and, as she says, she's in a zen state, turning the page. Of course, also as she proudly maintains, she looks whole; from broken she doesn't see anything. Neither sad or frustrated.

She and her mother Laura Morán (94) were accused by the current Attorney General of the Republic, Alejandro Gertz Manero, of the death of their brother Federico, the second wife's romantic partner for almost 50 years. The crime against them was homicide for omission of care. Alejandra — until now it was known — was accused of being an “accessory guarantor”, a legal figure that has just been concluded by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) itself is non-existent.

There was never any hard evidence against either of them. Even so, Alejandra was locked up since the end of October 2020. Until after his case was bouncing between the capital's courts and dancing between amparos and irregularities, the Court took it because of the social and even political tinge that it had.

On March 28, unanimously, the 11 ministers of the SCJN ordered the immediate release of Alejandra Cuevas, considering the crime for which he is accused non-existent. The highest body of justice indicated that there was no omission of health care for Federico Gertz, but they also stressed that Laura Morán could not be attributed to this responsibility, much less her daughter.

About 50 hours after her release, Alejandra Cuevas spoke in an interview with Infobae.

Question. How does it feel to be free after 528 days in prison when you're innocent?

Response. You would have to have been to Santa Martha to be able to understand the emotion that feels, because many times I thought that, because my enemy was so powerful, no matter how much desire and love my children had, there would be no way to stop it. From day one I arrived in Santa Martha I said: “This is the underworld.” There can't be anything worse than being in jail. The stay there is very complicated because the authorities want to make you have a hard time, that is the reality. So now that I see the grass, the trees, the fountain again and that I have the children and my mother with me, because it is a truly indescribable emotion. That's one of the things I was in jail for: to learn to value even the smallest details.

Fr. And how did you feel when you found out you were in jail for a crime that doesn't even exist?

R.. It was terrible because we knew that (the crime) was manufactured, but now I say “why didn't anyone find before that it didn't exist”. I mean, if it didn't exist, how were they blaming me for something non-existent? Neither the first, nor the second, nor the third lawyer realized that. It had to be the Supreme Court. But hey, things happen for a reason. Maybe if we had known from the beginning that it was non-existent, it wouldn't have come out either.

Fr. Is Mexican justice indebted to you?

R.. I have no doubt; there is a great debt. Because who pays me for my grandchildren's birthdays; Christmas with my children; the experiences I missed in 528 days... But just like me, there are a lot of innocent people going through the same thing. I believe that justice is indebted not only to me; it is indebted to many women.

Q. What difference was it that justice was done in your case unlike many others who did not?

A. The answer is very simple: it was for my children. I can't say it was the lawyers, the Universe, the Virgin or God. I was taken out of that hole by the fight that my three children had together. How did they do it? with the media, tweeters, social networks... but all motivated by what my children started doing. So what does it get out of me unlike them? To have three wonderful children who gave their lives for me. Because without the work they did this would never have happened, I would remain in Santa Martha (the prison) until the Attorney General of the Republic died.

Q. The leaks made it clear...

A. Imagine, he is saying that he wants to remove Chumel (Torres) because he expresses himself badly about women and that because he is very rude, and didn't he say “old prick”?

Q. You are looking to meet with President López Obrador, what do you want to tell him?

R. So that he hears my version, to bring him my file and let him see that what we are saying is not a lie... although I think he already knows it because it was something that 11 ministers voted for, by unanimous decision. But we didn't get a response. I don't know how to communicate to make an appointment with the president. Although from the Governorate, at his direction, they have already communicated with us.

Q. Now that you're free, what would your message be to prosecutor Alejandro Gertz Manero?

A. I think I am now in a zen mode. In the mode of love. I don't have words to say anything to you right now. Let it be his conscience and let it be karma that he is judged. The damage to me has already been done... How do I get paid? the pain of my children, my grandchildren, my mother... What can I tell him? I am not interested in saying anything to him, because to me he is nothing. He wanted to disrupt me, he wanted to break my spirit. But he lost.

Q. The viciousness in this case was not directly against you...

A. I have no doubt about that, why was I a guarantor? in any case my mother (Federico's partner) who was 88 years old at the time, if the arrest warrant had been against her, everything would have been different, because at that age they could not arrest her. Then he said “why not the daughter? and come here.” What did he know me from... I came to see him in the familiar things that my mom and Federico did, but it was never my friend that I sat down and talked with him. We never talked more than three minutes. His own daughters went more times than me to visit Federico.

Q. And after all this, what's next for you?

R. For now the reconstruction of all of us, because they annihilated us. We are like a puzzle that they put in a box, shake it and throw the tiles to the ground... and now it's time to put it back together. Also start the foundation that my children made to see how we get so many women who, like I was, are there right now. That is our life mission.

KEEP READING: