TheEconomistAugust 29th 2020 231O
ne of therituals of Mexican politics is
for a president to begin his term by
locking up a supposed miscreant from the
previous administration. Four of the six
presidents from 1982 to 2018 did that. They
incarcerated two union leaders, a former
president’s brother and the head of Pemex,
the state oil company. They presented
these as giant victories in the fight against
corruption. But they were not. Two of the
jailbirds were acquitted, one was pardoned
and the sentence of the fourth was over-
turned. Corruption continued to be ram-
pant, uninvestigated and unpunished.
Many Mexicans regard the administra-
tion of Enrique Peña Nieto, which gov-
erned until December 2018, as the most cor-
rupt in history. Rosario Robles, a minister
in his government, is suspected of helping
to siphon off $400m of the government’s
money through ghost companies and has
spent the past year in preventive deten-
tion. A construction firm with governmentcontracts helped Mr Peña’s wife acquire a
house worth $7m.
Those scandals helped Andrés Manuel
López Obrador, a left-wing populist, win
the presidential election in 2018 in a land-
slide. Mr López Obrador, often called amlo,
portrays himself as incorruptible and
promises to “eliminate, not reduce” graft.
Like past presidents, he has sought out
wrongdoers from earlier administrations.
Last year, at the request of the attorney-
general, a judge issued an arrest warrant for
Emilio Lozoya, who was international-af-
fairs co-ordinator for Mr Peña’s campaign
and the boss of Pemex from 2012 to 2016. He
returned from Spain in July this year.
The idea that Mr Lozoya would be justanother presidential scapegoat was demol-
ished in dramatic fashion. On August 19th
the press got hold of his deposition, in
which he offers to provide evidence of a
corrupt mega-scheme involving 17 promi-
nent Mexicans, including Mr Peña and two
other former presidents. Mr Lozoya is seek-
ing protection from prosecution in return.
On paper, the scandal he has revealed is
the biggest in Mexican history. Without a
proper investigation, on paper it will stay.
That is all too likely. In part, that is because
Mexico’s judiciary is politicised and inex-
pert. amloseems to share past presidents’
preference for trying his opponents in the
court of public opinion.
Mr Lozoya describes his role as Mr
Peña’s point-man in two linked schemes.
The first was a $4m bribe from Odebrecht, a
Brazilian construction company that cor-
rupted officials across Latin America (see
Business section). Mr Peña’s presidential
campaign spent most of that money on for-
eign consultants. The second was 56m pe-
sos ($4.3m) to induce senators from the op-
position National Action Party (pan) to
vote to open the oil sector to private invest-
ment. The architects of this scheme, says
Mr Lozoya, were Mr Peña and Luis Videga-
ray, his finance minister and confidant.
Mr Lozoya suggests that his reward for
his part in this skulduggery was his ap-
pointment as boss of Pemex, in charge of aMexicoBombshells on board
MEXICO CITY
Emilio Lozoya’s explosive allegations of corruption will test the country’s
institutions, and its presidentThe Americas
24 Siblingstormsstrikethe CaribbeanAlso in this section— Bello is away