After Video Leak Of Alleged Corruption Scheme Involving Odebrecht, Mexico’s President Seeks To Cancel Energy Contract

“It Needs to Be Reviewed”, Said the President of Mexico Referring to a Contract Signed Between Pemex and a Consortium of Grupo Idesa and Braskem, a Subsidiary of Odebrecht, After Alleging Corruption Schemes Involving the Companies in 2013

The President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, wants to cancel an energy agreement with a consortium backed by the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht, Reuters reported. Obrador called on Tuesday (18) for a “serious” investigation into the video that exposes corruption schemes based on alleged bribes to Mexican lawmakers in 2013, which is linked to the companies Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and Odebrecht.

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“This contract should be canceled in my opinion because it is unfair,” said the president, adding that “it needs to be reviewed.” The contract in question was signed by the government of Felipe Calderón, who was in power until 2012. It is for the supply of ethane, a petrochemical used as a raw material for the production of ethylene, from which plastics are made.

The parties involved in the deal were the Mexican Pemex and a consortium between the Mexican Grupo Idesa and Braskem, a subsidiary of Odebrecht, which gained notoriety as one of the companies involved in the complex corruption scheme uncovered by the Lava Jato Operation in Brazil, which shook the country’s politics and business world.

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Pemex was supplying ethane to the Idea-Braskem consortium, part of the Odebrecht group, and was providing it at below-market prices, Reuters notes. However, the consortium told the news agency that it did nothing wrong and noted that it conducted its own investigation and found no evidence of involvement in corruption in Mexico.

López Obrador came to power with a promise to fix the wrongs of the previous government, and one of them, according to him and his administration, was the energy reform implemented by the Peña Nieto government. One of Obrador’s first business orders was to suspend all oil and gas auctions and initiate a review of all contracts signed by the previous government with foreign oil and gas companies in search of evidence of corruption.

Video Shows Alleged Corruption Actions by Executives of the Mexican Pemex and the Odebrecht Consortium

The President of Mexico insisted on the transparency of the case and asked the media to release the material, which shows an alleged Pemex employee handing over cash packages to aides of senators from the opposition National Action Party (PAN). “It is quite strong, it shows the dirt of the corruption regime that reigned,” said Obrador.

The material was shared on social media and shows collaborators of the current governor of Querétaro, in Mexico, Francisco Domínguez, and former PAN senators Ernesto Cordero and José Luis Lavalle Maury counting several packages with tickets, being accused of having received bribes while working for senators in 2013, which would link him to the Odebrecht case.

The President of Mexico expressed that beyond the fact that the material will help to make the population transparent and informed, the idea is to recover the resources that the state lost due to acts of corruption.