The election campaign of the former Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has been paid for with bribes, according to statements by the former head of the state oil company Pemex.
As the public prosecutor said yesterday, ex-Pemex boss Emilio Lozoya testified that bribes amounting to the equivalent of around 3.8 million euros were used “mainly for the 2012 presidential election campaign”.
The money is said to have come from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. According to Attorney General Alejandro Gertz, Lozoya testified that Pena Nieto and his campaign manager had ordered the money to be given to „numerous foreign campaign advisors.“ Lozoya was head of Mexico’s state-owned oil company Pemex from 2012 to 2016 and was shipped from Spain to Mexico last month. There he is on trial for corruption.
Odebrecht, the largest construction company in South America, has admitted bribe payments worth millions in twelve countries in the region in a huge corruption scandal. With the money, the company secured lucrative contracts.
