Arturo Chávez

Chávez as Attorney General

His nomination to the post of Attorney General by President Felipe Calderón on 2009 was received with harsh criticism from some human rights activists and relatives of the victims of the female homicides in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, who, according to William Booth of The Washington Post'''', claim he did little during his years as Attorney General of the state to solve the killings of hundreds of women in the 1990s.

Chávez was required by law to testify before the Senate before assuming office. According to Ken Ellingwood of the Los Angeles Times'', his party held a numerical advantage in the 128-seat legislative chamber but lacked a clear majority, so it needed to reach for votes across the aisle. —and cannabis legalization, which the Senate as a whole had recently voted to decriminalize in small amounts for personal use. In the end, his nomination was confirmed with 75 votes in favor, 26 against (mostly from the political left), and one abstention. However, his appointment was criticised by the United States in a leaked diplomatic cable as "unexpected and inexplicable". Calderón has appointed Marisela Morales, head of the organized crime department in the Office of the General Prosecutor, as Chávez's successor. The cables mention that Carlos Pascual, the former U.S. ambassador in Mexico, sent the information of Chávez's collaboration with the organized crime groups to United States Department of State. Nevertheless, nothing about the former state Attorney General relationship with the drug cartels was confirmed.