Mexico: the ex-boss of Pemex sits at the table and accuses ex-president Peña Nieto

Emilio Lozoya, CEO of Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), during a meeting in Paris, October 16, 2015. AP Photo / Jacques Brinon

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2 min

Accused of corruption, the former director of the Mexican national oil company Emilio Lozoya for the first time accused former president Enrique Peña Nieto and his then finance minister for the first time. According to him, they would have collected more than 100 million pesos in bribes from the construction company Odebrecht, at the center of a gigantic corruption scandal which affects the whole region.

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With our correspondent in Mexico, Alix hardy

According to Emilio Lozoya, who confirms the statements of former Odebrecht executives in court, the bribes paid would have been used to pay for Peña Nieto's flamboyant electoral campaign in 2012.

The former director of Pemex also assures that he was charged by the president and his finance minister to pay bribes to several parliamentarians to ensure the vote of structural reforms of the president during his mandate.

According to the attorney general, Lozoya supported part of his statements with receipts and a video, also citing four witnesses.

Following this hearing, the Mexican prosecution announced the opening of an investigation stating that if the evidence adduced was validated, all those involved would be summoned to appear.

This is the first time that an investigation of this magnitude has been opened against an administration hit by numerous corruption scandals.

Extradited in mid-July to Mexico after months on the run in Europe, Emilio Lozoya agreed to collaborate with the Mexican justice system. He now has six months to prove that he acted under the constraint of an organized power system as he claims, in the hope that the network of corruption he will help to bring down will be of sufficient magnitude. to buy his immunity.

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  • Mexico
  • Corruption
  • Justice
  • Enrique Pena Nieto

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