|
|
|
 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2008 
Mexico Panel Clears Mourino of Wrongdoing
 Adriana Lopez Caraveo & Jens Erik Gould - Bloomberg
go to original
| | President Felipe Calderon (L) and Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino | | |
Mexico's lower house of cleared Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino of allegations of influence peddling, reporting a probe of government contracts given to a family owned business turned up no illegalities.
A special committee set up to investigate Mourino issued its final report today, finding contracts he signed with state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos on behalf of his family's business - while serving as deputy energy minister - were legal. The panel's head, Antonio Xavier Lopez Adame, released the findings at a news conference in Mexico City.
"No evidence was found that can affirm that Mr. Juan Camilo Mourino took advantage of the position that his federal public posts granted him," Lopez Adame said.
The committee's conclusions put to rest an allegation that could have hurt President Felipe Calderon, who campaigned for the presidency on an anti-corruption platform, as he awaits ional action on his energy initiative. At the time Mourino signed the contracts, he was serving as a deputy to Calderon, who then was the country's energy minister. Mourino was also a lawmaker.
The allegations that Mourino helped his family trucking business between 2000 and 2003, when he acted as its representative, were raised by opposition leaders including former presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Mourino wrote in a letter to the committee that his family's company, known as Ivancar, was not privileged by his position and that the relationship between Ivancar and Pemex began before he became a public servant, according to the text read by lawmaker Miguel Angel Jimenez.
To contact the reporters on this story: Adriana Lopez Caraveo in Mexico City at adrianalopez(at)bloomberg.net; Jens Erik Gould in Mexico City at jgould9(at)bloomberg.net |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us