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Napoleón Gómez Cleared of Money Laundering in Mexico

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23 December, 2010

In mid-December, the First Collegiate Tribunal for Criminal Matters in Mexico City cleared National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (SNTMMSRM) General Secretary Napoleón Gómez Urrutia of money laundering, meaning of eight charges filed against him over the past four years, only one remains.

That charge relates to a bogus one that the democratically elected general secretary of SNTMMSRM, or Los Mineros, violated Article 113 of Mexico’s Credit Institutions Act, which criminalizes the improper transfer of funds deposited in banks. A federal arrest warrant for him on this charge is still part of the extradition request that Mexico has filed with Canada.

Napoleón Gómez Urrutia 

The First Collegiate Tribunal’s 15 December decision, which cannot be appealed by federal prosecutors, dismissed vast evidence presented by the Attorney General’s office that Napoleón Gómez and union Treasurer Hector Fèlix Estrella laundered US$55 million contained in a union trust through an intermediary into stocks, currencies, and real estate.

One of the attorneys for Gómez in Mexico, Marco Antonio del Toro, told Le Jornada newspaper that the court’s determination thus removes the accusation that the miners’ leader illicitly handled union funds.

Gómez has been leading Los Mineros from exile in Canada, where he has been since 2006. In February 2006, he was highly critical of the Mexican government and Grupo México’s response to the deadly coal mine explosion at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in Coahuila. From 14-19 February 2011, on the five-year anniversary of Pasta de Conchos, four Global Union Federations – the ICEM, International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), and UNI Global Union – will conduct global days of action, calling for an end to the Mexican government’s attacks on democratic trade unions inside the Latin American country.