MEXICO.- A Mexican Senator is in hot water after attending Super Bowl XLIX yesterday, and not the opening session of Congress for the year. Gustavo Madero, president of the National Action Party (PAN, in Spanish), of which Senator in question is a member of, said that an investigation against him, Ernesto Cordero, will be opened up.
Not only will he have his paycheck deducted, given that his action "sends out an inappropriate message, doing the exact opposite of what the citizens are asking for, a full commitment;" but Cordero has damaged the image of legislators, his party and of senator, pointed out Madero.
Nonetheless, Cordero defended himself against critism.
"Let them deduct my paycheck" said Cordero during an interview today with Ciro Gómez Leyva at Radio Fórmula.
"Look, the Congress opening session, which I clearly did not attend, and to which I asked to get my day's payment deducted, is a 10 minute session where is very clear that nothing is to be discussed." In other words, the Senator didn't feel that it was important for him to show up for work, so instead he went to the Super Bowl.
Cordero also doesn't seem to fear his party's investigation:
"You can ask if my Super Bowl ticket came from the Senate, if I payed for it with public resources, which clearly I didn't; the issue of whether public servers can't have a life like all Mexicans do seems to me an exaggeration and it shouldn't, also public resources shouldn't be used for that purpose either, you shouldn't be invited by a dealership, or constructor, a public server can pay by its own means, this falls into the field of someone's personal life and we should respect that".
He added that his trip was paid by his own resources and not from the public coffers, and if that's the case they can investigate him. He only wanted to live life like any other Mexican. "I like this game," like many other Mexicans, and that's why we went to Arizona, he mentioned.
But, how many Mexicans can skip work, and ask to get their payment deducted just because? Juan Ignacio Zavala, brother in-law of former President Felipe Calderón, is the man who appears next to Cordero on the images captured by Fox Sports. The former President also attended the game alongside his wife, Margarita Zavala, who were apparently invited by Pepsi's President, Indra Nooyi.
Stay connected to San Diego Red through Facebook and Twitter.
jose.sanchez@sandiegored.com
zyanya.figueroa@sandiegored.com
