Mexico: López Obrador denies that his secretary committed a crime with irregular money

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, affirmed that the leaked images of his private secretary, Alejandro Esquer, depositing money in a bank correspond to a donation for earthquake victims and assured that the authorities decided that it was not a crime.

“The court at the time ruled that there was no crime, but they apply the maxim of the underworld of journalism that slander if it does not stain, smudge. They are now unleashed, “he criticized in the National Palace.

The Latinus portal, from the journalist Carlos Loret de Mola, published last week a video of Esquer and other López Obrador collaborators depositing several million pesos in an allegedly irregular way in 2017 in an operation known as “carousel”.

According to the organization Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad (MCCI), the characters deposited 50,000 pesos (more than US $ 2,300) and re-formed in different banks until reaching 44 million pesos (more than US $ 2 million) to avoid anti-money laundering law.

López Obrador assured that this money corresponds to the initiative of his party, the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), to support the victims of the 2017 earthquakes.

He said that Morena received a complaint during the 2018 electoral campaign for this donation, which was investigated by the National Electoral Institute (INE), which asked the banks for images of the money deliveries.

“Now a corrupt journalist, Loret de Mola, releases the footage from the bank’s camera. This information already had the INE and the Electoral Tribunal, ”said López Obrador.

This is the third video scandal released by Latinus that splashes the close circle of President López Obrador, who took office in December 2018 with the promise of ending corruption.

The site published a material last July in which Martín Jesús López Obrador, López Obrador’s brother, received in 2015 cash from David León Romero, then representative of the Government of Chiapas and later head of Civil Protection in the first months of the Government of López Obrador.

Before, on August 20, 2020, Pío López Obrador, also the brother of the Mexican president, appeared in a first video in which he also received money from León Romero, who has been a politician in the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico, current ally of the Government.