Mexico Holds Former Prosecutor on Treason Charge

“The evidence was inconclusive,” defense lawyer José Ramón Flores and Héctor Villasana said after a Mexican federal judge sent former Chihuahua attorney general César Jáuregui Moreno to prosecution on a treason charge. Jáuregui remains in pretrial detention at the Altiplano maximum-security prison. The ruling is not a verdict, but the state has already placed him behind bars while the case proceeds.

A closed hearing, an open question

Judge Ricardo Alfonso Santos Dorantes of the Federal Criminal Justice Center at Almoloya de Juárez announced the decision Sunday, October 25, after a hearing resumed Saturday. The hearing was closed at prosecutors’ request; journalists could enter only for the decision. The evidence and the judge’s reasoning haven’t been made public.

The Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) presented about 150 pieces of evidence. Villasana said 80 to 90 witness statements in the file referred to Pedro Román Oseguera Cervantes, who died in the crash, but none referred directly to Jáuregui. The defense argued that the evidence didn’t show Jáuregui’s responsibility.

The FGR alleges that Jáuregui allowed foreign personnel to operate without authorization in actions reserved for federal forces. Prosecutors called that an attack on the federal pact and division of powers. Investigative reports cited by Infobae and Excélsior identified the two US citizens as undercover CIA agents, but those reports included no confirmation from the US government. The FGR statements quoted in the reports referred only to foreign personnel.

The case grew out of a drug-laboratory raid at El Pinal in the municipality of Morelos, Chihuahua, from April 17 to 19, 2026. Officers dismantled a clandestine laboratory. On the return journey, a convoy vehicle fell into a ravine and exploded, killing state investigation agency director Pedro Román Oseguera Cervantes, his escort Manuel Genaro Méndez Montes and the two US citizens.

The state’s charge and its stakes

Attorney General Ernestina Godoy announced a federal arrest warrant on October 17, saying it was based on more than 100 investigative steps. Mexico’s Constitution requires evidence that a crime occurred and that the suspect probably committed or participated in it for a judge to bind someone over. A Chihuahua state judge separately ruled on a lesser charge of improper exercise of public service on October 22. How the state and federal cases will proceed together remains unclear.

Under Article 123 of Mexico’s federal penal code, treason carries five to 40 years in prison and a fine of up to 50,000 pesos. The article’s first form concerns acts against the nation’s independence, sovereignty or integrity intended to subject it to a foreign person, group or government. Reforma reported that Jáuregui faces that form of the charge and called him the first person in 80 years to face treason prosecution in Mexico.

The Constitution’s Article 40 says Mexico won’t consent to foreign intervention in an investigation or prosecution without the express authorization and collaboration of the Mexican state. The case puts that boundary—and the federal government’s authority over security actions—at the center of a prosecution built around allegations of unauthorized foreign involvement.

A challenge, and a demand for release

About 200 supporters linked to the National Action Party drove in a convoy in Chihuahua City on Saturday and demanded Jáuregui’s release, calling him a political prisoner. Governor Maru Campos denied blaming him directly and called the treason charge excessive. President Claudia Sheinbaum said Campos told her, “it wasn't me, it was my former prosecutor.”

Villasana said he would challenge Jáuregui’s detention through an amparo, a constitutional-rights appeal. He also said FGR agents compared the case at a hearing with the US intervention in Venezuela against Nicolás Maduro and warned that failure to impose exemplary punishment could lead to a similar situation in Mexico. That account came from the defense; the hearing was closed, and the FGR’s version wasn’t included in the reports cited.

The timetable for the investigation phase and a trial date weren’t known. It also remained unclear whether the US government would identify the two dead Americans or whether the prosecution would change security cooperation between Mexico City and Washington. The machinery has moved; the evidence and the reasoning behind its decision remain out of public view.