Mexican president to remain above the law
Until now there have been remarkably few checks on the abuse of power by Mexican politicians, but on Tuesday the Chamber of Deputies approved constitutional reforms that mean governors, congressmen, judges, prosecutors and other elected officials will now face immediate investigation for any wrongdoing, regardless of whether they still hold office or not. The bill received 376 votes in favor, 56 against and five abstentions.
However, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) blocked a further amendment that would have ended the president’s legal immunity against any crimes committed while still in office. The conservative National Action Party (PAN) and the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Labor Party (PT) and Citizens Movement had all voted in favor of ending the president’s immunity to immediate prosecution, but lacked the two-thirds majority needed to pass the amendment.
“This is a matter of protecting Mexican institutions. The presidency is an institution that represents national unity and this institution can not be breached or exposed to malicious or frivolous court proceedings,” said PRI Deputy Paulina Alejandra del Moral.
This explanation proved insufficient for Silvano Aureoles of the PRD, who urged his PRI counterparts to justify how, “when the head of the federal government has stated that no one is untouchable, you now insist that he must be the only untouchable one, the only citizen unequal before the law?”
The modified bill will now be returned to Mexico’s upper house, which in December 2011 had approved the elimination of legal immunity for all officials, including the president.
PRI paves way for private investment in Pemex
For years, PRI statutes meant party members who served in Congress were forbidden from voting on any change in the way that Pemex is run. But at the national convention on Sunday, nearly 5,000 PRI members voted unanimously to alter the party platform and allow support for reform in the sector.
“Let’s show, with attitude, with action and with voice, that we are a new generation of PRI,” President Enrique Peña Nieto told the convention. “This is an assembly of renewal and transformation.”
Since President Lazaro Cardenas nationalized Mexico’s petroleum industry in 1938, Pemex has had exclusive access to Mexico’s oil reserves. Despite being damaged by allegations of corruption, inefficiency and a poor safety record, it remains an important source of national pride and revenue, providing around one third of the government’s annual budget.
The Mexican left has accused the PRI of trying to privatize Pemex, but the government insists that the company will remain in state hands, with reforms focused on modernizing the sector and allowing some private and foreign investment expected to be presented to Congress late this year.
“We share the need of an energy reform for better growth, keeping the state’s control, but modernizing the industry to reach its full potential and making sure the exploitation of our resources benefits everyone,” reiterated PRI President Cesar Camacho on Sunday.
PRI to tax food and medicine?
The PRI also voted on Sunday to remove statutes which prevented the party from permitting value-added tax (IVA) to be imposed on food products and medicines.
Mexico currently has an IVA rate of 16 percent (11 percent along the border with the United States, Belize and Guatemala), but certain items such as food, medicine and books are exempt from this tax.
The PRI is thought to be preparing legislation that would impose a tax on such products, a move that would prove highly controversial and could cause severe inflation.
The strongest criticism of the PRI’s plans has come from the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), with Congressman Francisco Martinez declaring this week that the PRI would stand to lose a lot of votes as taxes on food and medicine would harm the country’s poorest families.
Introducing IVA “will see their income reduced, and although the PRI proposes social support programs, there is no assurance that the funds raised will reach the neediest families or that they will really support their income,” Martinez said.
PRD President Jesus Zambrano also noted that the PRI had ruled out introducing IVA for food and medicine during last year’s election campaign. As an alternative source of revenue, Zambrano suggested that removing tax havens and subsidies would raise “three times more than taxing food and medicine.”
Judge rules that jailed union boss will face trial
A federal judge ruled on Monday that there is sufficient evidence to try former teachers’ union boss Elba Esther Gordillo for money laundering and organized crime.
Gordillo, who headed the powerful National Teachers’ Union (SNTE) for 23 years until her arrest last week, stands accused of embezzling nearly two billion pesos of union funds.
Judge Alejandro Caballero Vertiz said that the evidence presented by prosecutors against Gordillo and three other defendants was strong enough to merit trial and continued incarceration.
If convicted, Gordillo, 68, could face up to 30 years in prison, plus a hefty fine, although under Mexican law she could apply for a move from prison to house arrest upon turning 70. Gordillo has previously claimed that she inherited her wealth and her defense lawyers maintain that she is innocent.
Having been detained last Tuesday and taken to the Santa Martha Acatitlato women’s prison in Mexico City, Gordillo was transferred to a different prison on Friday to receive treatment for several health problems.
Gordillo, who reportedly suffers from high blood pressure, kidney failure, hepatitis C, diverticulosis and cerebral aneurysm, sought private medical care, but upon hearing the diagnosis of prison doctors, a judge ruled that she be treated at the health center in the Tepepan women’s prison, also in Mexico City.
A prison spokesperson said she will receive no special privileges and had been transferred solely because of medical recommendations.
The Tequila Files 