MEXICO.- A business fabric allegedly used "illegally obtained" funds to finance the campaign of PRI representative Enrique Peña Nieto, virtual winner of Mexican presidential elections according to a report filed today by the left wing who nevertheless admitted to not having "compelling" proof about the origins of the money.
The report was qualified by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) as "unfounded accusations" and "an open defamation".
During a press conference led by former presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican liberal party a affirmed that their accusations about an alleged "triangulation" of businesses and money transfers that link six companies and an individual will be taken to the authorities to be investigated before accepting the results of the elections.
The Electoral Court of the Federation Judiciary (TEPJF in Spanish) must resolve before September 01 about the validity of the elections after, for the first time in Mexico's history, the leftwing is presenting a request to have the presidential elections annulled.
"I have elements to say that illegally obtained money was used in the campaign of (Enrique) Peña Nieto (PRI's presidential candidate) ( ). It will be very serious if this is not cleared up" stated López Obrador today at the press conference.
Attorney Jaime Cárdenas, legal advisor of López Obrador's team presented at that same conference a series of data proving that Peña Nieto "benefitted from money of unlawful origin" something that, he added, "is commonly referred to as money laundering".
According to the information presented by Cárdenas, the transferred funds and with a suspicious origin can be as much as 108 million of Mexican pesos (approximately 8.1 million of US dollars) and they come from "allegedly" public resources of regional government offices or from "organized crime".
However, Cárdenas admitted that there "are not compelling proof about the origin" of the funds and that "that is what the authorities have to look into".
Cárdenas brought a series of data about the alleged existence of a business "fabric" linked to local bank Monex, the one that delivered store credit cards to political operators and vote promoters for the PRI during the electoral campaign.
He assured that "a number of companies transferred and deposited millions of resources to Monex", bank that he accused of having received a million of Mexican pesos ($76,289 USD) as "commissions" for having produced these cards during the months of April, May and June, matching the duration of the electoral campaign.
The ruling National Action Party (PAN) already reported the use Peña Nieto made of these Monex cards to pay his political operators, as mentioned by Cárdenas, but contrary to the leftist party, they have not asked for the elections to be annulled.
The López Obrador team's attorney identified the companies involved with the names of Inizzio, Atama, Koleos, Tiguan and Efra; some of the linked socially and with nonexistent or fake addresses as well as the individual known as Rodrigo Fernández Noriega.
He also presented documents of some of their set-up with creation dates and matching partners in some cases; he insisted that the funds used by the PRI to finance their campaign allegedly were 12 times the maximum allowed by electoral laws.
López Obrador said that these suspected maneuvers from Peña Nieto's team should conduct the electoral authorities to annul the presidential elections since they are against the Mexican Constitution, which "states that the elections must be free and authentic".
He also added that they could ask the cancelation of Peña Nieto's candidacy and even the register of PRI as a political party.
Cárdenas as well as López Obrador insisted that the authorities should investigate these reports and that if they failed to do so besides being "accomplices" to the crime, they (the leftwing party) would proceed to take legal action against them (the authorities).
"We will proceed by the legal channels but that means we will make us of everything the Constitution states in this case. ( ) If the issue is not further investigated, if there is impunity, we will proceed against the responsible authority" he said.
López Obrador also charged against the Federal Institute of Elections (IFE) by affirming that the "enquiries" "should have been done" this institute, being the regulator of the elections, since "that is why there is a whole investigation apparatus, not gratuitous, that costs the people".
He said the report will be delivered not only to the electoral authorities but to the Mexican President Felipe Calderón, to the Treasury and to the General Attorney's Office, "so that tomorrow they don't say they didn't know".
The PRI, on a latter release, said that these "alleged irregularities" are "unfounded accusations" and condemned "the systematic use of lies" from López Obrador.
They also "reject the money laundering accusations for being inadmissible and are an open defamation". "It is clear that Mr. López Obrador and his team go from one lie to another", added the PRI on their official note.
editorial@sandiegored.com
Translation:
Karen B.
