Ex-governor’s Prison Sentence Reduction Request Denied

Chetumal, Quintana Roo – Former governor Mario Villanueva Madrid has been denied a modification of his sentence of more than 37 years in prison, requested before the Sixth District Court Specialized in Execution of Sentences in Mexico City.

Currently, the former state executive chief is under house arrest in Chetumal and thanks to an amparo suspension preventing his return to prison, measures in his favor that he won throughout the year after seeking protection from the Union Justice.

Alongside the benefit of house arrest, he requested, through the incident of sentence duration request, a reduction of his prison sentence, which was denied in an interlocutory sentence issued on December 2.

In response, the former governor filed a new amparo in the country’s capital against this measure that does not benefit him, according to file 1282/2025 of indirect amparo trial being resolved by the Eighth District Court in Criminal Matters in Mexico City.

The appeal was filed on December 11. On the 15th, the federal judge in the country’s capital requested the former governor’s defense to remedy requirements missing from the complaint within five days for it to be admitted. Everything indicates that the filing will be dismissed because the deadline expired this Monday, meaning file 59/2025 of incident of sentence duration request will be archived.

This new legal process emerges at the end of the year, following a 2025 in which the former governor fought through various legal means to avoid returning to prison.

According to judicial sources, Mario Villanueva, constitutional governor of Quintana Roo from 1993 to 1999, was arrested in May 2001 outside Cancún for crimes related to prohibited substances.

He is sentenced to a 37-year prison term, of which he has just over 13 years remaining to serve, while he is already 77 years old. He currently suffers from various severe health complications that would worsen if he returns to prison.