Raúl Rocha Cantú, owner of Miss Universe, loses judicial protection as cooperating witness

A Mexican court revoked the precautionary measure protecting businessman Raúl Rocha Cantú, co-owner of the Miss Universe pageant, meaning he will now have to appear in court to explain his alleged involvement in a criminal organization dedicated to arms and hydrocarbon trafficking. The Attorney General's Office, headed by former prosecutor Alejandro Gertz Manero, signed an agreement as a cooperating witness that was overturned last week by the new head of the FGR, Ernestina Godoy, who considers Rocha Cantú a “fugitive” from Mexican justice. According to the newspaper Milenio, the Second Collegiate Court in Criminal Matters of the Fourth Judicial Circuit granted the revocation requested by the Attorney General's Office, following the departure of Alejandro Gertz Manero, who was removed from office on November 28. The new prosecutor's office has closed in on the controversial businessman, who has been in the spotlight since the victory of Mexico's Fatima Bosch in the Miss Universe 2025 pageant, when one of the jury members revealed alleged bribes paid by the magnate. He was later implicated in a plot to smuggle fuel, weapons, and drugs from Guatemala, linking him to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and La Unión Tepito. During Gertz Manero's tenure, the FGR had granted the businessman the benefit of being a cooperating witness, which allowed him to avoid the first arrest warrant issued against him. However, this privilege was suspended based on three main arguments: failure to appear before the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, failure to appear before the FGR's Special Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, and a request by representatives of Petróleos Mexicanos to annul the agreement, on the grounds that Rocha Cantú did not meet the requirements to remain a cooperating witness. Rocha Cantú had obtained an injunction from a district criminal judge in the state of Nuevo León to avoid appearing, arguing that his personal safety was at risk and that a second arrest warrant had been issued against him; but this measure has been revoked by the Collegiate Court. According to Milenio, judges Carlos Alberto Flores Alamilla and Víctor Hugo Alejo Guerrero voted in favor of revoking the injunction, arguing that witnesses are required to appear in person, while judge Sara Verónica Siller Morquecho voted against it and ruled in favor of a remote appearance, as Rocha Cantú had offered. According to information from the newspaper El Universal, a new arrest warrant was issued on December 15 after Rocha Cantú refused to provide information, failed to appear at two court hearings, and provided false addresses. The prosecutor's office believes that the businessman, who recently announced that he would move the Miss Universe headquarters from Mexico City to New York, is currently abroad.