Powerful Mexican businessmen use justice system to persecute wives who accuse them of violence
La Jornada
The criminal complaints filed by María Fernanda Turrent, Regina Seemann, Maha Schekaibán, Jessica Garduño and many other wives assaulted and battered by their husbands are a compendium of physical, sexual and psychological violence suffered by thousands of women. However, they all lie on the desks of prosecutors without any actions being taken.
What is new in the cases listed here is that the men—who are all wealthy and well connected in the justice system, politics and the media—claim they are victims of their wives. It is the husbands who have filed criminal complaints against their wives, and, unlike the wives’ complaints, the husbands’ are advancing, presumably, because of bribes paid to judges and prosecutors.
The husbands filed criminal complaints against not only their wives, but their wives’ lawyer, Ana Katiria Suárez, who, faced with an arrest warrant issued by the capital's prosecutor's office, opted to flee the country. This left all of her clients without legal representation.
The husbands, moreover, have imitated forms of struggle that women historically resort to with the creation of a men’s collective called “No More Innocent Prisoners.” In December they demonstrated with banners and posters in front of the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico City. The counterattack by the men’s collective has already claimed its first victim.
María Fernanda Turrent Case
María Fernanda (“Mafer”) Turrent, a woman from Veracruz who suffered years of abuse from her husband, Édgar González Peredo, was summoned to a capital court on January 22 to answer for alleged “retention” of her children. It was a trap. She was arrested and is now in the Santa Martha Acatitla Women's Prison. Her children were left unprotected.
After the scandal generated by the victim’s arrest and indications of influence peddling by González Peredo within the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico City, its head, Bertha Alcalde, fired Miguel Barrera, head prosecutor for crimes against children and adolescents. Alcalde justified her firing of Barrera, saying the Attorney General’s Office “will not tolerate, under any circumstances, the manipulation of the system with money or taking advantage of ties to power,” which apparently was what happened in this case.
Persecution of the wives’ lawyer
A month before she was arrested, María Turrent was suddenly left without her attorney, Ana Katiria Suárez, who fled the country when an arrest warrant was issued for her. Her other clients, all of them victims of domestic violence, were left in the same situation. Their husbands joined forces in their collective to denounce an alleged “extortion network” that—according to them—is led by Ana Katiria Suárez, who they said was “using vulnerable women and children to promote and win divorces and million-dollar pensions, fabricating files and putting together expert reports to prove non-existent injuries” to their children and wives.
“I want to see her (Ana Katiria Suárez) in jail”
Guillermo Sesma, Regina Seemann’s ex-husband, is at the forefront of this campaign. He is a business partner of the former governor of Oaxaca and former senator Ulises Ruiz (Sion Pro, Galileosky, Lomas Sky). His brother, Jesús Sesma, is a local deputy for the Green Ecologist Party and president of the political coordination board, close to former prosecutor Ulises Lara. Both are first cousins of the wives’ lawyer, Ana Katiria Suárez, about whom Guillermo Sesma proclaimed on social networks: “I want to see her in jail.”
Bernardo Vogel Fernández de Castro, director of the Collado steel company, Édgar González Peredo, and others are also part of the men’s collective. The director of El Financiero, Manuel Arroyo, who years ago was also accused of violence by his ex-wife Jessica Garduño, actively participates in the campaign to defame Ana Katiria Suárez.
In these legal conflicts, a dozen boys and girls find themselves in the crossfire of broken marriages and suffer serious consequences. In addition, abused women have been left, at least for the moment, without their legal representative.
“I’m a fucking psycho”—Édgar González Peredo
Before deciding to leave her husband in September of 2023, María Turrent had managed to record audios and videos of the constant scenes of domestic violence. She presented them as evidence to the prosecutor's office when she decided to report González Peredo. In one of them, González is heard saying: “Do you think I'm stupid? I'm a fucking psychopath.” In another, he shouts: “Get down on your knees or I'll kill your brothers.” In all of them, children's cries can be heard.
In January, taking advantage of a visit by the children to their father, Gonzalez detained the minors and managed to have an “eagle code” (judicial restraining order) issued against the mother. “Until you sit down to negotiate (a divorce agreement) the children stay with me. It’s that easy,” the businessman threatened the mother.
Months later, Turrent's daughter managed to secretly communicate with her. The mother recorded the girl’s words. “I was worried when you didn’t answer. I thought you had died or something had happened to you,” she said.
María Turrent—not Édgar González Peredo—was issued a restraining order, which requires that she appear in Mexico City every month, takes away her passport, and orders that she refrain from doing anything that could be construed as intimidating Édgar.
Édgar González Peredo is the founder of Belgravia Group (developing and financing businesses in the real estate, financial, hotel, agro-industrial and media sectors) and BH Solutions. He is the son of the powerful lawyer Cecilio González Márquez. His defense is led by the office of lawyer José Luis Nassar Daw, son of Nassar Haro, one of the darkest figures in the crimes of the dirty war.
Throughout 2024, González Peredo managed to quickly advance multiple complaints against María Fernanda, including procedural fraud, retention of minors, violation of correspondence and false statements. Two of them were brought to court, and in one the victim was criminally charged, which culminated in her imprisonment.
Faced with this attack, María Turrent had released a video in which she asked “that in the proceedings, favors don’t have more weight more than the evidence I have presented.” This did not happen. Last Friday, from prison, she sent a message to the women’s groups that are in solidarity with her. “They know that I am in custody unjustly. I have always conducted myself with evidence. The only thing I have asked for my children and for myself is respect and to be able to live my life in peace.”
“The case of María Fernanda Turrent is outrageous.” - Secretary of Women’s Affairs
For her part, the Secretary of Women’s Affairs, Citlalli Hernández, took a position from the federal government, accusing the justice system of a modus operandi when men with economic power were accused of domestic violence.
“The case of María Fernanda Turrent is outrageous and, like other cases that we are following from the secretariat, puts us on alert against a possible modus operandi in the justice system against women who report domestic violence by men with economic power. We have detected that a common denominator is that the aggressors try to exert influence to continue exercising violence against their partners and children, and also initiate proceedings against them. We have noticed this throughout the country with various judges. We will continue to monitor all the cases that come to us and will follow up closely to change this situation.”
These women had to hear about the problems other women had with their husbands. Sooo, it’s not easy but raise any daughters with full knowledge of HOW their marriages may turn out. I was married to an abusive husband, being asked to play Russian roulette with a 357 magnum as it’s pointed at u tends to be the end of you “denial phase” and the secret planning on HOW to leave safely, discreetly, forever. Never entering a marriage where the culture allows or turns blind eye to abusing behaviors by husbands is the BEST suggestion. Be “friends with benefits “ but walk away after a month or two, keep a job that allows you to be self-supporting, if u start getting that “nesting” behavior…get pregnant then move leaving no “forwarding address”, DISAPPEAR! Unless u can find a city, state/country to move to and not be found….forget the “happy ever after” if the men in your town, state, country believe abusing is ok. NO relationship or marriage will change them …AND WORDS OF LOVE CHANGE AS THEY GET “comfortable with you. Always keep a very secret stash of money if you plan on dating or having a relationship with any man that agrees with the culture of abuse .
Their justice system is the same as ours and operates in Maritime Law of Sea, as well as most so called free countries around the world who've been taken over from within by entities hired as subcontractors to the original government.
At least they seem to have one honest woman in Mexico City within the system....for now.