Mexico City, Nov 28. Before resigning as Mexico's Attorney General, Alejandro Gertz Manero appointed Ernestina Godoy, legal advisor to the Presidency, as provisional attorney general, according to a document released this Thursday. The document states that Godoy was appointed as head of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Competitive Control, which would allow her to become the interim head of the Attorney General's Office of the Republic (FGR) after Gertz Manero's departure. Additionally, national media reported that Godoy has already resigned from her post as Legal Advisor to the Presidency, which has not yet been officially confirmed. Previously, the Mexican Senate approved Gertz's request to leave his post to become an ambassador 'to a friendly country,' without specifying which, as he said, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had proposed to him. The upper house initiated the corresponding process to elect Gertz's successor, which begins with the issuance of a public call. In a statement, Senator Adán Augusto López Hernández affirmed that 'the FGR will be in charge of the person in charge of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Competitive Control,' while it is decided who will succeed Gertz. López Hernández, president of the Political Coordination Board (Jucopo) of the Senate, detailed that all interested parties may participate in the call starting at 1:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. GMT) this Friday, until the same time on Sunday. He explained that on Monday, Jucopo will review the profiles of those who apply for the FGR, and on Tuesday, ten profiles — five women and five men — will be selected to be voted on in the Plenary Session of the upper house. Subsequently, he added, these profiles will be sent to Sheinbaum, so that 'she, in turn, in a timely manner, sends us a shortlist,' from which the next attorney general will be chosen. In the letter sent to the Senate after a day of speculation, Gertz Manero requested the upper house to begin the process for the ratification of his appointment as ambassador with which he has 'honored the president' and 'to be able to serve the interests of Mexico with commitment, responsibility and in strict observance of a foreign policy representative of the plurality of the Mexican State.' Gertz Manero took office as attorney general in January 2019 and was scheduled to remain in the position until January 2028. Godoy was the Attorney General of Mexico City from 2018 to 2024, when Sheinbaum was head of government of the capital, and resigned from her post to join the presidential cabinet.
