Mexico strengthens legal strategy in the United States to defend Mexicans at risk of the death penalty / @SRE_mx >>>

#SRE.- As part of its comprehensive consular protection policy, the Government of Mexico is strengthening its legal strategy in the United States through specialized programs that provide legal defense to Mexicans in highly vulnerable situations.

Within this framework, the annual meeting of the Capital Punishment Legal Assistance Program (MCLAP) was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on May 29 and 30. The meeting was held to review progress, share best practices, and strengthen coordination between staff from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) and specialized legal experts involved in the defense of Mexicans at risk of execution in Mexico.

Representing the SRE, the meeting was chaired by Vanessa Calva Ruiz, Director General of Consular Protection and Strategic Planning, who was accompanied by the United States Protection team and staff from the agency’s Legal Consultancy.

The Mexican Consul in Albuquerque, Patricia Pinzón, also participated, along with more than a dozen legal experts and specialists from the Program. During the meeting, Calva Ruiz presented the progress of the legal and consular assistance programs for the Mexican community in this country.

At the meeting, attorney Amy Knight was introduced as the new Executive Director of the Program, replacing attorney Greg Kuykendall.

Knight, a specialist in the death penalty and juvenile life sentences, will assume leadership of the MCLAP until November 2026. She is a graduate of Stanford Law School and has extensive experience in criminal litigation, including cases before the United States Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Arizona Supreme Court.

On May 15, Roberto Velasco Álvarez, Head of the North American Unit of the Foreign Ministry, held a meeting in Mexico City with Greg Kuykendall and Amy Knight, in which he highlighted the importance the Mexican government places on the Foreign Ministry’s legal programs as fundamental pillars of the consular protection strategy in the United States in the current immigration context there.

Since its creation in 2000, the MCLAP has intervened in more than 1,300 cases and has successfully avoided or reversed the death penalty in more than 1,200, consolidating Mexico as an international benchmark in consular protection in capital matters.

#MéxicoNewsTv