Mexico Arrests Ex-Pemex Chief Lozoya in High-Level Graft Case
Mexican authorities have taken former Pemex Chief Executive Officer Emilio Lozoya into custody in a corruption case that reaches the highest levels of power, after the nation’s president pressed prosecutors to speed up the drawn-out investigation.
Lozoya said Enrique Pena Nieto ordered him to funnel bribes from the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to the former president’s campaign, which he helped manage.
The money, according to Lozoya’s past testimony, also went to guarantee lawmakers’ votes in favor of a landmark 2013 energy reform
The case has fueled President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s anti-corruption messaging, but he has said recently that the legal process is taking too long after the investigation showed no significant advances.
Lozoya was spotted having dinner at a fancy restaurant in Mexico City last month, raising public ire and questions about the case.
November 3, 2021
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-03/mexico-arrests-ex-pemex-chief-lozoya-in-high-level-graft-case
>legal process is taking too long after the investigation showed no significant advances.
[Think Durham.]
Between August and December 2013, the Mexican Congress debated and then approved a Constitutional Reform that allowed private and foreign investment across the energy values chain for the first time in 75 years.
Mexico’s energy reform continues to be a bone of contention between analysts and politicians, between international investors and those who seek greater national control of the country’s energy wealth.
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/mexicos-new-energy-reform