Brother of President López Obrador receiving money in Mexico – Latin America – International

As if it were a already seen, the videos of politicians distributing suitcases loaded with banknotes returned to the front pages of Mexico, where the Government and the opposition have opened a leak war in full investigation of the plot Odebrecht.

The last episode is a video leaked to the media that aims very high and shows Pío López Obrador, brother of the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, receiving money in a restaurant in 2015 from David León, an official of the current Government.

(Read also: Former Pemex chief details on Odebrecht bribes for Peña Nieto)

The president, who has already lived through a series of “videoescandalos” In 2004, when he was mayor of the Mexican capital, he came out this Friday to the passage of controversy and assured that the resources received by his brother were voluntary “contributions” for the electoral campaign of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) in Chiapas.

“They are contributions to strengthen the movement at a time when the people were the ones who supported,” he stated at a press conference, in which he compared the work of his party with the Mexican revolution, which “was financed with the cooperation of the people. “, said.

A Lopez Obrador, who took power in 2018 after decades denouncing corruption in Mexico, has no doubt that this case has “notable differences” with the Odebrecht bribery scheme during the government of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018).

Even so, the President invited the opposition to file a complaint to investigate the case and the origin of the money. In addition, he paralyzed the planned appointment to the head of a public drug company of David León, who until a few days ago directed Civil Protection, until the situation is clarified.

(You may be interested in: Amlo shows a video related to the bribes of the Pemex case)

Media war for Odebrecht

It is no coincidence that the video of the President’s brother was leaked the same week that another home video from 2013 appeared on networks that shows a delivery of money bags to an advisor to the then-senator Francisco Domínguez, current governor of Querétaro by the opposition National Action Party (PAN).

This delivery of money is linked to the Odebrecht case, since the former director of Pemex Emilio Lozoya has revealed that the Peña Nieto government, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), distributed bribes to PAN legislators to approve the energy reform that liberalized the sector in 2013.

López Obrador himself has asked to air and publicize this case as much as possible – even Lozoya’s complaint has been leaked despite being under summary secrecy – so he does not doubt that his brother’s video is a response from the opposition.

“It is a normal, legitimate reaction of those whose interests are being affected by the decision we have to end corruption in the country,” said the president, who added: “We are not all equal”.

(Read here: Amlo Says Former Mexican Presidents Must Respond to Justice)

Lozoya, extradited last month and who, as “collaborating witness”, would seek to be exonerated by pointing to others involved in Odebrecht, has generated a great political earthquake in the country, implicating former presidents Peña Nieto, Felipe Calderón and Carlos Salinas de Gortari, as well as former ministers, governors and legislators.

Calderón, one of López Obrador’s great political rivals, accused the President of using Lozoya as “an instrument of revenge and political persecution.”