In the flurry of news and criticism over the cancelled Peña Nieto visit, Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby remind us that the Juarez Cartel used shell companies to finance Peña Nieto’s presidential campaign; their article from March last year explains how,
The bombshell revelation was made this week by the independent news outlet Aristegui Noticias who claim that top officials of the Juarez Cartel financed thousands of cash cards that were handed out by Mexico’s Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) during the 2012 political campaign that resulted in the victory of Enrique Pena Nieto. According to the Mexican journalists, the cash cards were provided by a company called Monex. They were reported to be financed through a series of shell corporations by key players with the Juarez Cartel.
Through a three part series, the Mexican news organization identified Rodolfo David “El Consul” Avila Cordero as a key figure in the financial scandal that implicates the leading figures in Mexico’s ruling party the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI).
Avila Cordero was arrested in 2005 in Mexico City in connection with the seizure of almost $750,000 in cash. At the time authorities had identified him as a top tier operative with the Juarez (Carrillo Fuente) Cartel who worked as their financial operator an a key figure in their connections with Colombian drug lords. Avila Cordero had earned the nickname “The Consul” because of his links to high ranking officials within the Mexican government and acted as an ambassador of sorts, Aristegui Noticias reported.
Eight years after his arrest, Avila Cordero became a contractor for a government funded program called Crusade Against Hunger. Using a company called Conclave SA de CV and Prodasa SA de CV, Cordero was able to secure more than $396 million pesos or $25 million in government contracts through rigged bidding processes by government officials.
The Crusade Against Hunger is a pet project of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto who claimed that with that program he would improve the quality of life for his people.
According to the investigation by the Mexican journalists, Conclave and Prodasa are shell companies that do not have real offices or staff.
Ortiz and Darby posted yesterday that
Mexico’s President Cancels White House Visit After Trump Hits CartelsMexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has cancelled his planned visit to the U.S. where he was expected to meet with President Donald J. Trump. The cancellation comes after Mexico’s government denounced Trump’s new border security measures aimed at interfering with the cash flow of the very Mexican cartels believed to have financed the current Mexican president’s campaign.
There’s room for discussion on whether or not the cancellation is directly related to this.
However, Peña Nieto’s approval ratings last week were at 11%. Every minute the media in the U.S. and in Mexico spend berating Trump and/or what Trump may or may not do is a minute they don’t spend examining the reasons why Mexico’s government has failed – and continues to fail – its own citizens.
Remember also that Peña Nieto’s popularity started its precipitous decline after the 2014 disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students. Only the remains of one student have been found.
The Ayotzinapa massacre, not Donald Trump, is emblematic of Mexico’s failures.
Related:
Southern exposure: The costly border plan Mexico won’t discuss
UPDATE
Linked to by Maggie’s Farm. Thank you!
He is from the PRI, the party that institutionalized corruption. 🙂
Established in 1929!