Let’s not forget who is corrupt – El Financiero

Within a week, Lozoya’s case had moved insane. Former presidential candidate Ricardo Anaya and former Pemex manager Carlos Trevinho wanted to implement Laval’s formula, summoning them to appear in prison and in fast track Opening an operation for them, issuing an arrest warrant and detaining them indefinitely, while the accused were handed over to everyone, the collaborator in the manner of the government and its patron, Emilio Lozoya, the first head of Pemex in the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, a new extension of three months to continue collecting evidence in your favour. Anaya left the country and Trevigno got a postponement because he didn’t even know what he was being accused of. Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero addressed a political, not legal, argument.

Accelerating it as it was done appears to have been President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s attempt to report something concrete about progress in the fight against corruption in his third government report on Wednesday, but things did not go well for what so far remains a nuisance. by Lozoya. The prosecutor’s need to match reality with the president’s words is so great that he wants to hide who has so far been proven corrupt. Lozoya is the only person with evidence in Brazil and the US, where the Odebrecht corruption case was broadcast in 11 countries, and that he received money from the company, something that was easily overlooked by Gertz Manero.

Lozoya negotiated impunity with the attorney general in exchange for accusing officials in Peña Nieto’s government and two Banya politicians—at least two with presidential aspirations—of soliciting and receiving bribes to agree to economic reform. Ironically, the first complaint in Mexico about Odebrecht corruption was in 2017, which former Pemex director José Antonio González Anaya, filed against Lozoya. Gertz Manero, who provided Lozoya with all kinds of facilities, ignored international documents on Odebrecht’s corruption, because he would be left without a case.

The most important statement made by Gertz Manero, and referred to earlier in this space, is the statement by Luis Alberto de Meneses Weil, the former director of Odebrecht in Mexico, before the Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office, where he confirmed that the only person who gave a bribe in Mexico and gave him 10 million And half a million dollars went to Lozoya. This was confirmed by Hilberto Mascarenhas Alves da Silva Filho, who was the Director of Structured Operations, Odebrecht’s bribery office. “The payment went to Emilio, the president of Pemex,” he said. According to them, no other Mexican was bribed, and there was no money for any campaign except Javier Duarte, for governor of Veracruz in 2010.

As part of their interrogation, this exchange occurred between the Brazilian prosecutors and de Meneses Will:

– During your time as CEO, did you know that a senior Pemex official, through the Department of Structured Operations at Odebrecht, has received unusual amounts or bribes in favor of Odebrecht, for example, awarding contracts?

De Meneses Weyll replied, “Yes, I know the payments.” “I have requested payments from the Regulated Operations Department and have already made a profit.”

– Can you decide?

“I allowed the payments as an endorsement (bribe) of a relationship that was in place.”

“Can you say the name?”

“Emilio Lozoya. I met Emilio Lozoya (when) I arrived in Mexico in 2009. He was the director of the World Economic Forum, and as a Mexican he had knowledge that I considered it useful to define my plan. We did. From 2009 to 2012, we had countless meetings, Whenever he went to Mexico, I would consult him so that he could guide me on how we could develop the business.”

“The guidelines were positive for our claims, by showing entrepreneurs who could complement (our capabilities). Between 2009 and 2012, I would say he was a program structuring consultant. And in that period we had with him… an interest… as well.” In 2012 it became relevant … to the political-administrative structure (of the new government), I add this consideration to my interest in investing in a potentially beneficial relationship.”

De Meneses Will admitted that had Lozoya not entered the presidential campaign of Enrique Peña Nieto, the bribery would have been “much less”, and “he understood that it (it was fair for him) to receive confession (the bribe) for everything we got. He supported in that period .. …and she allowed … to pay 4 million (dollars) so that he could have an effective position.”

“In the same way, he introduced me to entrepreneurs from Hidalgo, and we also achieved a very positive relationship, because it complements our skills. There I am talking about Entrepreneur Tapia… Industrias y Construcciones Tapia, added De Meneses Weyll. Juan Carlos Tapia has partnered with a subsidiary of Odebrecht to do With maintenance work at the Tula refinery, Lozoya used a company owned by his sister, now deceased, for financial engineering to receive bribes from Odebrecht.

“I felt supported by Emilio Lozoya, and therefore, I understood that as much as he had such an outstanding position, because we knew and trusted each other, I thought we could get a more effective position through him. This evaluation was effectively made,” stressed de Meneses Will. “In taking over the general management of Pemex, we knew we would have someone we could trust and could support our claims in Pemex.”

It is necessary to fight corruption, but without forgetting that the Odebrecht affair began with Lozoya. Gertz Manero did not have a good experience with him, for which he did not give solid evidence, but proceeded with a public discourse contrary to that fact which does not fully correspond to and contradicts the statements of former Odebrecht executives who have indicated this. He who protects her today is corrupt.