Mexico's lower House of Deputies voted to open an investigation into accusations that Government Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño improperly helped his family win contracts from the state oil monopoly Pemex [2]. The accusations stem from contracts Mourino signed between 2000 and 2004 when he acted as the legal representative of his family's company while also working as a lawmaker and then as deputy energy secretary. The move comes as President Felipe Calderon, who campaigned on an anti-corruption platform, is seeking to further open Pemex to foreign investment.
The left-opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) first called for a probe, but walked out before the vote, saying the parameters of the investigation are too narrow. The PRD-led bloc wants the inquiry to include suspect contracts with the Federal Electricity Commission. PRD leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador [3] called Mouriño a "trafficker in influence." The probe will last two months and look into all contracts awarded by Pemex's refining and gasoline units. (NYT [4], March 15; Bloomberg [5], March 13)
See our last post on Mexico [6].
