MEXICO CITY, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday defended the weekend arrest of Cesar Jauregui, former attorney general of the northern state of Chihuahua, who faces treason charges for allegedly allowing U.S. intelligence agents to participate in an anti-drug operation on Mexican soil.
Speaking at her daily press conference, Sheinbaum said the Chihuahua state attorney general's office had first issued an arrest warrant against Jauregui for alleged offenses related to misconduct in public office, while the federal Attorney General's Office issued a second warrant on suspicion of treason.
"It was very irresponsible, to say the least," Sheinbaum said, criticizing the former prosecutor for allegedly allowing foreign agents to participate illegally in an operation on Mexican soil and for the way the operation was carried out.
Jauregui is accused of allowing agents from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to take part without authorization in an operation against organized crime in April in Chihuahua, a state governed by the opposition National Action Party.
The operation targeted a clandestine drug laboratory in El Pinal, in the Sierra Tarahumara mountains. Several CIA agents reportedly participated, including two who later died in a road accident along with two state officials.
Sheinbaum said the group had traveled at night on a winding road that was dangerous not because of crime but because it required familiarity with the terrain. Their vehicle overturned or was involved in an accident, killing the two U.S. agents, she said.
Jauregui was initially arrested on Oct. 17 over alleged misconduct related to the April operation involving U.S. agents.
At an initial court hearing, a judge allowed him to face the state-level charges without being held in custody. However, federal prosecutors subsequently arrested him on a separate warrant for alleged treason.
The former state official was transferred to the maximum-security Altiplano federal prison in the central State of Mexico. ■