MEXICO Law and Practice Contributed by: Gilberto Miguel Valle Zulbarán, Alejandro Catalá Guerrero and Erick Gustavo Soto Ceballos, Basham, Ringe y Correa
offence is obliged to expose it before the rele - vant authority. In instances of acts of corruption, a criminal offence must be expose it before the authority as set forth in 7.2 Enforcement Body . 6.2 Voluntary Disclosure Incentives There are no incentives provided by law for vol - untary self-disclosure; however, if a company or individual is under investigation, they may seek that the Public Prosecutor agrees “Proceeding Suspension” or to an “Abbreviated Procedure”, as explained in 7.4 Discretion for Mitigation and Aggravation . Also, in some cases provided for in Article 256 of the NCCP, the Public Prosecutor has discretional power to not prosecute a case by applying the criterio de oportunidad. The guidelines for doing this are issued by the Attorney General’s Office and each of the 32 State Attorney General’s Offices. When a company or individual is under investigation, they may request the application of the criterio de oportunidad from the Public Prosecutor if there are merits in doing so. 6.3 Self-Disclosure Procedures Since there are no self-disclosure procedures, if a company or individual decides to cooper - ate in a criminal case by disclosing information, the information must be submitted directly to the Public Prosecutor in charge of the criminal investigation. 6.4 Protections Afforded to Whistle- Blowers If a person denounces a criminal offence, such as an act of corruption, or testifies in connection with such, the Federal Law for the Protection of Persons that Intervene in Criminal Proceedings applies. Each State has a similar law applicable for protection of persons and witnesses in con - nection with local criminal proceedings.
This federal law is enforced by Mexico’s Attor - ney General’s Office, and applies for any person that could be in danger for intervening in criminal proceedings, as well as to witnesses that volun - tarily accept to provide assistance in the pros - ecution of the federal criminal offence. The protective measures for such individuals are focused on protecting physical, psychological, patrimonial, and family aspects. Among such measures are (i) constant surveillance by the rel - evant authority; (ii) anonymity for the individual (zero disclosure of identity); (iii) safe removal to another location if needed; and (iv) granting of a new identity if absolutely necessary due to potential risk. On the other hand, the Federal Government has issued Guidelines for establishing a whistle- blower system for corruption acts connected to administrative offences and for determining the protective measures to be granted. This system and protective measures are covered by the Ministry of Public Service. In Mexico there is no law governing the develop - ment of content for a whistle-blowing system for companies and protective measures regarding the investigation of criminal and administrative offences. 6.5 Incentives Provided to Whistle- Blowers There are no incentives for whistle-blowers granted by the guidelines or law. In all cases of a criminal investigation, a per - petrator can decide to effectively co-operate with the public prosecutor whether it is for the prosecution of a worse criminal offence than the one for which they are being prosecuted or is in connection with the same crime.
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