 |
|
|
 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2006 
New Ahumada Video Links Gov´t to Plot
 Wire services - El Universal
| | Carlos Ahumada, currently jailed awaiting trial for alleged fraud in public works contracts, made the statements in the course of 40 hours of interrogations by Cuban authorities in April 2004. |
A TV network on Friday aired a video montage in which an indicted construction mogul says he plotted in 2004 with government officials to discredit Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Carlos Ahumada, currently jailed awaiting trial for alleged fraud in public works contracts, made the statements in the course of 40 hours of interrogations by Cuban authorities in April 2004.
He had fled to Havana to escape arrest on the graft charges. The Cuban government detected his presence and ultimately deported him back to Mexico, but not before questioning him and releasing tapes containing snippets of those conversations.
On the video broadcast Friday, Ahumada says that in early 2004, both the federal Attorney General´s Office (PGR) and the Interior Secretariat were aware of his plans to disseminate videos intended to hurt the image of López Obrador, Mexico City´s then- mayor, who was already leading in the polls for this year´s presidential contest.
Ahumada tells a Cuban interlocutor that he provided the incriminating videos of López Obrador associates in exchange for "the protection of the federal judiciary" and an assurance that his real estate and construction companies would be permitted to "continue working."
Ahumada said officials "at the highest level" of the PGR and Interior Secretariat knew in advance about the compromising videotapes and that he was convinced President Fox would also have been informed "about a thing of this magnitude."
The man serving as attorney general in 2004, Gen. Rafael Macedo de la Concha, now holds a diplomatic post in Italy, while erstwhile Interior Secretary Santiago Creel is a senator-elect who will lead the bloc from Fox´s National Action Party in the upper chamber when the new Congress convenes next month.
The videos Ahumada circulated some 2 1/2 years ago showed political associates of López Obrador accepting thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions from the construction magnate. But neither the release of the videos nor a subsequent attempt to prosecute Lopez Obra- dor under an obscure statute - an initiative that also involved Macedo - derailed the mayor´s bid to be the left´s standard-bearer in this year´s presidential race.
Journalist Carmen Aristegui, who hosted Friday´s broadcast where the 12-minute montage of Ahumada was shown, acknowledged the political implications of airing the tape in the current climate while insisting that the video is "indubitably newsworthy."
A López Obrador spokesman says the video will be submitted to the Federal Electoral Tribunal as additional evidence in the campaign´s challenge of the fairness of the July 2 presidential vote. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us