After 7 years of having been issued an arrest warrant against the former rector of the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM), Dr. Alejandro Vera Jiménez, he was arrested on the morning of this Friday, November 7 in the city of Cuautla by elements of the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic.
Vera Jiménez is investigated for the diversion of resources in the so-called “master scam.”
The former rector is involved in the alleged participation in the diversion of federal public resources of the program called “National Crusade against Hunger” that was implemented during the administration of former President Enrique Peña Nieto.
According to official information, the “master scam” involved the delivery of 7,670 million pesos in illegal contracts in which 11 federal agencies, 8 universities and more than 50 officials participated, including the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos.
The Federal Court of Administrative Justice determined that Alejandro Vera Jiménez was responsible for the diversion of 239 million pesos through the triangulation scheme of funds, during 2013 and 2014, which involved the simulation of services and the improper subcontracting of companies.
For what crimes is Alejandro Vera accused?
As documented by El Financiero, in the early hours of Saturday, November 11, 2017, elements of the Criminal Investigation Police in support of the Morelos Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, searched the house of the then rector of the UAEM, located in Club de Golf Paraíso, in the municipality of Emiliano Zapata, to try to complete an arrest warrant issued by a Criminal Judge for the crime of illicit enrichment. When he did not find him, he was declared “abducted from justice.”
In January 2018, Vera Jiménez was arrested for the crime of abuse of trust, transferred to the Atlacholoaya prison in Xochitepec and house arrest was ordered. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor of Morelos, Juan Salazar Núñez, personally attended this operation.
The former rector was taken out by ministerial elements from the restaurant where he was at a work meeting with several of his former collaborators.
Vera Jiménez was kidnapped in 2019
On November 14, 2019, Alejandro Vera Jiménez was kidnapped along with his wife, researcher María Elena Ávila Guerrero, when they were traveling from Tepalcingo, a municipality in eastern Morelos, aboard their truck, heading to Cuernavaca, on the La Pera-Cuautla highway.
On November 15, 2019, the couple was rescued by the police forces of the Fusion group-Specialized Units in Combating Kidnapping; In the operation, the alleged perpetrators were also arrested.
Prosecutor’s Office offered reward for information about Alejandro Vera
Meanwhile, on April 19, 2021, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of the state of Morelos offered a reward of 1,110 UMAS (around 100 thousand pesos) for anyone who provided data to find the whereabouts of Alejandro Vera, for various judicial processes for alleged mismanagement at the head of the university.
Alejandro Vera was at the head of the UAEM from 2012 to 2017 and led several marches together with the university community to demand the then governor, PRD member Graco Ramírez (2012-2018), and the Federation to provide more budget. During that six-year term, he claimed to suffer political persecution by the state government.
He was an active opponent of the regime of the then governor of Morelos, Graco Ramírez Garrido Abreu, and teamed up with the then mayor of Cuernavaca, Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo.
Together with the mayor of Cuernavaca, Cuauhtémoc Blanco; with Javier Sicilia, whom he appointed head of Social Movements of the UAEM, he was the protagonist of marches alongside the bishop of Cuernavaca, Ramón Castro; transportation leaders; and some social actors, who demanded the fall of the PRD leader Graco Ramírez, in the face of growing violence in the state.
In the electoral process he was registered as a pre-candidate of the New Alliance Party for governor, although weeks later he gave up the aspiration in exchange for being director of Science and Technology in the administration of Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo.
