Guadalupe Lizárraga Domingo, 10 de Agosto del 2025, 04:58
An internal 2012 file ordered García Harfuch’s dismissal from the Federal Police, yet he rose to key posts and today is one of the most protected commanders in Genaro García Luna’s network.
By Guadalupe Lizárraga
Omar García Harfuch joined Genaro García Luna’s inner circle later than most, but he has enjoyed the greatest institutional protection, despite failing evaluations and having an international human rights record. His career fits the pattern of impunity within the network of loyalties built by García Luna from the CISEN and the Federal Investigation Agency.
Within that circle are figures such as Luis Cárdenas Palomino, Facundo Rosas, Ramón Pequeño García, and Maribel Cervantes, all with serious records: torture, corruption, ties to organized crime, and even participation in controversial operations such as "Fast and Furious" or covering up the escape of El Chapo Guzmán. All of them passed through CISEN, the civilian intelligence agency, before moving into key positions in the Federal Police and the Public Security Secretariat. The only exception was Harfuch, who entered the Federal Police directly in 2008 but rose through the ranks under the same logic of institutional protection as his mentors.
Impunity is the constant. Cárdenas Palomino, officially imprisoned in Cefereso 1 for torture charges, is accused by victims who doubt he is truly being held there. Facundo Rosas, arrested in 2022 for manslaughter, was released just a few months later. Pequeño García has remained a fugitive since 2021 with an Interpol Red Notice. Maribel Cervantes, despite her operational closeness to García Luna, faces no charges and works in the private banking sector.
In 2009, a declassified diplomatic cable from WikiLeaks already mentioned García Harfuch—then with barely a year in the Federal Police as a sub-officer in Cuernavaca, Morelos—among the agents flagged internationally for human rights violations. Despite this, he remained in his post without sanction until 2012. That year, an internal memorandum from the Federal Police, specifically from the Internal Affairs Unit, file UAI/DGII/5518/12, ordered administrative proceedings against him for failing the integrity and trust control examinations.
The evaluation, mandatory for all commanding officers and personnel of the Federal Police, included psychometric, toxicological, medical, polygraph, and social background tests. Failing it meant, officially, being deemed unfit to remain in the institution, which in theory should have led to permanent dismissal, in accordance with Article 19, Section XVI of the Regulations of the Federal Police Law. The 22-page file was signed by Commissioner General María de la Luz Núñez Camacho, now a professor at the UNAM Faculty of Law.
Federal Police memorandum signed by Professor María de la Luz Núñez Camacho ordering the dismissal of Omar García Harfuch for being deemed unfit to perform police duties. Photo: Special.
However, the sanction never came. In January 2013, just months later, Proceso magazine revealed his appointment as State Coordinator of the Federal Police in Guerrero, one of the states hardest hit by drug cartel violence, with groups such as Guerreros Unidos and Los Rojos, and the rise of community police forces—sympathetic to social movements—emerging in response to the collapse of public security.
In 2014, his name resurfaced in both national and international reports over the Ayotzinapa case and the disappearance of the 43 students from the Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College, in which the Federal Police had documented involvement in covering up evidence and manipulating the facts.
A career marked by institutional protection
García Harfuch’s continued presence in key posts, despite failed evaluations and an international record, confirms the persistence of the impunity model. His rise was not an isolated achievement but the result of institutional shielding applied to the entire García Luna circle—García Luna himself now serving a sentence in the United States for drug trafficking—while the structure he built remains intact.
Heirs to that network, like García Harfuch, reproduce the same pattern of power and cover-up: without ever passing through CISEN, he has managed to direct security operations and narrative control with the same logic of protection and loyalty that sustained his mentor.
While the families of the Ayotzinapa victims, victims of fabricated charges, and those harmed by corruption networks demand justice, García Harfuch positions himself as a figure with higher political ambitions. His public narrative omits his documented record, presenting him as an “incorruptible police officer,” while the files, leaks, and international reports tell a different story: that of an operative forged in the shadows of García Luna, protected by the same network that has kept torturers, corrupt officials, and fugitives untouched.
English Edition