The holder of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Mexico, Santiago Nieto, explained that he is investigating corruption schemes in the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) and forcefully assured that the former president will be denounced if there are indications that link him.
“We do not (investigate) directly about him, but (yes) especially the Government. If Peña Nieto appears in the investigations, of course he will be denounced before the competent authorities,” the head of this body, dependent on Efe, said in an interview with Efe. the Ministry of Finance, which pursues money laundering in the country.
In his office, where cell phone and camera access is banned, Nieto assured that during the previous Administration “corruption was systematic” and that the institutions of the fight against corruption were used to “extort businessmen and other people”.
In addition, he said that in 2016 a National Anti-Corruption System was created as a “simulation strategy” since there was no “fiscal or financial information on public servants.”
In 2018, Andrés Manuel López Obrador came to power with a vehement anti-corruption speech, but he diluted the hopes of many by announcing that he would only investigate Peña Nieto if the Mexicans decided in a citizen consultation.
“President López Obrador has told me that we have to have a policy of zero tolerance for corruption and impunity. If (Peña Nieto) appears in some of the investigations, we will have to proceed accordingly,” Nieto reiterated.
LOZOYA, THE GREAT COUP
So far, the most media coup against corruption by the previous government has been the case of Emilio Lozoya, director of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) for much of the term of Peña Nieto, who last week accepted his extradition to Mexico from Spain, where he was captured in February.
The FIU filed four complaints against the Mexican Prosecutor’s Office against Lozoya, including having received bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht and having participated in the fraudulent sale of a fertilizer plant.
“Emilio Lozoya is an important case … but it is not the only case,” Nieto stressed.
He said that thanks to complaints from the FIU, the former leader of the Pemex union, Carlos Romero Deschamps -who resigned his union post after more than 25 years-, as well as the ex-Supreme Court magistrate Eduardo Medina Mora, managed to “fall”.
In addition, he denounced a corruption plot between the construction company OHL and the secretary of Communications and Transportation of the previous government, Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, who died last April, although the lawsuit “persists in his close circles.”
And he said he “collaborated” in arrest warrants for state politicians such as former Chihuahua governor César Duarte, arrested last Wednesday in Florida (USA).
“Peña Nieto said that corruption was cultural. Of course, if your friends are all corrupt, you think it is cultural. But the issue is not cultural, it is structural,” Nieto argued.
AFTER NARCO’S MONEY
The FIU blocked last month almost 2,000 bank accounts associated with the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) evidenced that the government no longer only persecutes the leaders of the cartels but also seeks drug money.
“What we have done has been a change in the strategy to go about financial structures,” explained Nieto, who recalled that the FIU also blocked accounts of 330 people linked to the Sinaloa Cartel and other accounts of José Antonio Yépez “el Marro”, leader of the Cartel of Santa Rosa de Lima.
On June 27, the CJNG showed its fury with an attack against the chief of the Mexico City Police, Omar García Harfuch, in which the official survived but three people died.
Following the attack, it emerged that several Mexican officials have been threatened by the cartel in recent weeks, including Santiago Nieto.
“The suggestion was made that several people had a threat, but it is the only thing I know,” said Nieto, who went to the hospital to visit García Harfuch, wounded with three bullet wounds.
“It was important to give a message that we are working together to fight criminal groups, particularly the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel. That is why I went to visit him at the hospital,” he revealed.
Santiago Nieto served as a specialized prosecutor for electoral crimes between 2015 and 2017, when he was dismissed after reporting that he had received pressure from Lozoya to publicly declare his innocence.
López Obrador recalled him in 2018 to head the FIU.
“When I was removed from the Fepade (Special Prosecutor’s Office for Electoral Crime Attention), Omar García Harfuch was one of the few who spoke to me to say that it was an injustice,” he recalled.
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