Comment Mexican prosecutors are investigating former President Enrique Peña Nieto in a case involving suspicious movements of millions of dollars, authorities said Thursday. It was the first announcement of a corruption investigation into the former leader. Pablo Gomez, head of the finance ministry’s economic crimes unit, told reporters that officials had identified “a scheme through which a former president received financial benefits.” He said the findings were handed over to the attorney general’s office, which has launched an investigation. Peña Nieto has not been charged with a crime. He said Thursday that he was innocent of any wrongdoing. Gomez said the former leader had received 26 million pesos – about $1.3 million – in transfers in 2019 and 2021 from a relative who made large deposits and cash withdrawals from a bank account. Gómez did not name the former president, but it was clear he was referring to Peña Nieto, who led Mexico from 2012 to 2018. Gómez linked the transfers to two companies linked to the former president’s family, which, as he said, had signs of “fiscal and financial irregularities”. One of those companies maintained a “symbiotic” relationship with a foreign company that received about $500 million in government contracts during Peña Nieto’s years in power, he said. Former leader of Mexico’s search for missing convicts in DNA scandal No Mexican president has ever been charged with embezzling funds, despite a long history of government corruption. Peña Nieto’s party was defeated in 2018 in an election seen as a referendum on official bribery. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, standard-bearer of the left, won a landslide victory by promising to fight such behavior. However, it has made limited progress in cleaning up the policy. Analysts said it was unclear whether this new investigation would be different – or whether it amounted to a maneuver to bolster López Obrador’s party ahead of state elections next year and a presidential election in 2024. “It’s not the first time that someone in the government comes out to accuse Enrique Peña Nieto, and later everything is forgotten,” political scientist Denise Dresser told the Aristegui Noticias radio program. Peña Nieto said Thursday that he had “confidence” in the country’s judicial system. “I am confident that the authorities will allow me to clarify any questions about my inheritance and prove its legitimacy,” he said on Twitter. The former president now lives in Spain. The war next door: conflict in Mexico displaces thousands Gómez provided few details about the alleged financial irregularities. He declined to name the companies or other people involved. He said Peña Nieto and other family members were shareholders in one – “Business A” – and had created the second company, “Business B”, before he became president. Gomez denied any ulterior motives behind the investigation. He said the government was not involved in “political prosecutions”. Peña Nieto left office with one of the lowest approval ratings of any Mexican leader in recent history after his government was hit by corruption scandals. It is not the first time that Mexicans are fixated on the possible prosecution of a former president. In February 2020, authorities arrested Emilio Lozoya, who had served as Peña Nieto’s campaign finance chief, on charges linked to a corruption scheme run by Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. This company has admitted to paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to government officials around the world. Lozoya then testified that he had used Odebrecht bribes for Peña Nieto’s campaign and then for payments to lawmakers, acting on orders from the former president and his finance minister, Luis Videgaray. Peña Nieto and Videgaray have denied the charges, and authorities say they have found no evidence to support them. The attorney general’s office, responding to a freedom of information request filed by El Universal newspaper, said in April that there had been “no investigation into Peña Nieto.”
