{"id":431020,"date":"2026-02-17T21:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T21:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/431020\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T21:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T21:03:08","slug":"mexican-president-challenges-uk-asylum-given-to-woman-accused-of-corruption-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/431020\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican president challenges UK asylum given to woman accused of corruption | Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said her government will send a formal letter of complaint to officials in the United Kingdom after the wife of a former governor wanted for allegedly<\/a> pilfering \u00a34.8 million of public money was granted asylum in Britain.<\/p>\n

Karime Mac\u00edas, ex-wife of jailed former Veracruz governor Javier Duarte, is wanted for extradition to Mexico for allegedly siphoning millions from the state welfare office, but has reportedly spent the last few years in London<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can a woman accused of fraud and corruption be granted asylum?\u201d Sheinbaum asked. \u201cToday we are sending a letter with this position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither the British embassy nor Macias\u2019 lawyer responded to a request for comment. The Home Office said it does not comment on individual cases. Mac\u00edas\u2019 asylum in the UK was first reported by Mexican news outlet N+<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mac\u00edas was first lady of Veracruz from December 2010 to October 2016, when her husband resigned amid allegations of organised crime and embezzlement. He was alleged to have siphoned away billions of pounds from state coffers.<\/p>\n

At the time, Duarte and Mac\u00edas\u2019 alleged crimes came to embody the graft that has plagued Mexico for years, and was particularly rampant during the government of then-president Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto. Mexico remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world, with Transparency International recently ranking<\/a> it as 141 out of 182 countries.<\/p>\n

After his resignation, Duarte fled the country, but was arrested six months later in Guatemala<\/a>. He was jailed in Mexico on money laundering and criminal conspiracy charges. Mexican prosecutors recently requested to extend his sentence on charges that he embezzled \u00a3215,000 from a state fund that was supposed to support children and the elderly.<\/p>\n

While serving as first lady, Mac\u00edas reportedly enjoyed the use of a 15-acre, $9.7m ranch called El Faunito, where the walls were decorated with paintings by Latin American masters such as Rufino Tamayo and Fernando Botero.<\/p>\n

She was also head of the state welfare office, where she is alleged to have awarded contracts worth millions of pounds to shell companies. Authorities later found a warehouse filled with goods belonging to the couple, including Mac\u00edas\u2019 notebooks.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Sheinbaum displayed a page from one of those notebooks where Mac\u00edas had written \u201cI deserve abundance\u201d over and over again.<\/p>\n

Mac\u00edas disappeared from view shortly after her husband\u2019s capture. In 2018, a Mexican judge issued an arrest warrant for Mac\u00edas, accusing her of embezzlement. Days later, Duarte\u2019s successor, Miguel \u00c1ngel Yunes, presented the findings<\/a> of a months-long surveillance effort, alleging she was living a life of luxury in London.<\/p>\n

According to Yunes\u2019 investigation, Mac\u00edas had a home in Belgravia, one of London\u2019s wealthiest neighbourhoods, less than a mile from Buckingham Palace. Mac\u00edas reportedly spent at least \u00a360,000 a month, and attended a \u201cface gym\u201d to strengthen her facial muscles.<\/p>\n

The day the findings were released, Interpol reportedly issued a red notice for Mac\u00edas\u2019 arrest, although she does not currently appear on the agency\u2019s wanted list.<\/p>\n

Mac\u00edas was detained<\/a> by British authorities in October 2019, however, she was released after paying \u00a3150,000 to face the extradition charges on bail. She also agreed to wear an ankle monitor.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Westminster magistrates court ruled in favour of her extradition to Mexico but Mac\u00edas\u2019 legal team filed several appeals to halt the process, according to local news reports<\/a>, alleging that the case against her had expired, a fact that the Mexican foreign ministry had not shared with British authorities.<\/p>\n

Mac\u00edas had also filed an asylum petition with the British government, alleging that she was the victim of political persecution by the Mexican government. According to news reports,<\/a> the disgraced first lady was granted asylum in the UK last year.<\/p>\n

As well as condemning the British government\u2019s ruling, President Sheinbaum also questioned how Mac\u00edas was able to live in one of the world\u2019s most expensive cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis person, who has been living in the UK for quite some time now, who knows where they got the money? Because having children there, living in a special place, where did they get it from?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said her government will send a formal letter of complaint to officials…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-431020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}