Adán Augusto defends himself in Congress: "I'm not afraid to appear before any authority; I don't need immunity."

“I'm not afraid to appear before any authority. I don't need immunity.” Adán Augusto López Hernández , the Morena party coordinator in the Senate, has come to his defense in the plenary session of the Permanent Commission—the legislative body that represents Congress during recess periods. The opposition has managed, on the fourth attempt —with the approval of the ruling party—to bring up for debate the issue that has dominated headlines over the past month. Hernán Bermúdez Requena, the head of security in Tabasco during the López Hernández administration, is wanted internationally for leading the criminal cell known as La Barredora, an appendage of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel. On the other front, the majority party has capitalized on the request for the removal of immunity filed by the Campeche Prosecutor's Office against Alejandro Alito Moreno, the controversial senator and PRI leader, to shift the focus of the discussion. "Would you [Alito] do the same? Would you go before the Campeche State Attorney General's Office in the next few days to clear up any doubts?" asked Alfonso Ramírez Cuellar, deputy coordinator of the Morena deputies. The two leaders have engaged in an incipient back-and-forth battle. "If you and I were measured by the same yardstick, you'd be in jail, Adán," the PRI leader retorted. The attack drew an immediate response: "We're completely different. Yours is the quagmire, the dunghill, mine is to continue building the project of transformation," López Hernández retorted.

The opposition faction in the Senate-based Permanent Commission had to wait four weeks before Morena cast its votes to debate the issue that has long put its coordinator in the spotlight. PAN Senator Lilly Téllez has been the medium; the legislator presented a point of agreement for Adán Augusto to request immediate leave from his position to make himself available to the authorities and face the complaints and accusations against him that the PAN and PRI have filed with the Attorney General's Office (FGR).

The coordinator of the majority bloc and president of the Senate's Political Coordination Board has stepped forward to respond to the opposition's positions. "I don't care about all their filth," was one of the responses from the senator, who has steered clear of public statements. His trademark is repelling the public eye. The opposition, determined to milk the scandal for every last drop, has confronted López Hernández and unsuccessfully proposed his removal from the legislative positions that give him the power to pull the strings in the lower house. "His mere presence is not just an insult to the Senate; having ties to an extremely violent criminal group, with fuel-fueled assassins, puts all of us who work here at risk," Téllez declared.

Morena deputies and senators have kept a protective mantle over Adán Augusto López. The request to remove the PRI leader's immunity from prosecution, accused by the Campeche Prosecutor's Office of allegedly embezzling 83.5 million pesos in public funds while he governed the state, has been a tailored shield for the ruling party that has served to neutralize the opposition's onslaught. "Do not hide behind immunity, do not fall into that trap of impunity, act with the courage you supposedly come here to express. I would like you to follow Senator Adán Augusto's example of appearing when a judicial authority requires it," insisted Ramírez Cuéllar. The deputy, from the group closest to President Claudia Sheinbaum, has also revealed the intention of some members of the ruling party to deactivate the impeachment proceedings against the PRI leader. "I have a disagreement with members of my party and with officials of the current administration. They indicate, or suggest, that it is better for a man as discredited as Senator Alejandro Moreno not to be stripped of his immunity, so that he can continue to lead the PRI and continue to sink into total and absolute disintegration," said the deputy coordinator.

The long-awaited debate has been a game of ping-pong between Morena and the PRI. “You want to build a dictatorship. You're going to have to kill us, Alfonso,” was Alito Moreno's response to the demand that he appear before the Campeche Prosecutor's Office. The debate shifted to the PRI side. “You were very macho there, when you weren't in government, scared to death,” the PRI leader told López Hernández, who responded, reminding the leader that under his leadership, the historic party's debacle was consolidated. “You've never been a brilliant politician. What you've known is how to kiss the hand of whoever suited you, even if it ended up being a blow to you later. Make no mistake, my career didn't begin as a college thug,” Adán Augusto López concluded to close the debate.