Former Pemex director's arrest revives Mexican side of Odebrecht affair

Emilio Lozoya, former director of the Mexican public oil company, Pemex, during his arrest in Marbella on February 13, 2020. JORGE GUERRERO / AFP

The noose tightens around the former president of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018): his trusted man, Emilio Lozoya, director from 2012 to 2016 of the Mexican public oil company, Pemex, was arrested, Wednesday 12 February, in Malaga, Spain. The corruption charges hanging over him relaunch the Mexican side of the Odebrecht scandal, the Brazilian construction giant who poured bribes en masse, particularly in Latin America.

It was at the exit of a luxurious residence near Marbella that Mr. Lozoya, 45, was arrested, in a taxi, by the Spanish police. An operation carried out at the request of the Mexican authorities, who are demanding his extradition. The following day, the former senior official, on the run for almost a year, was imprisoned in a prison in Malaga. He is accused of large-scale fraud, criminal association and corruption.

Article reserved for our subscribers Read also Former director of Mexican oil company Pemex caught up in Odebrecht affair

It all started in 2017 when former Odebrecht executives revealed to Brazilian justice that they had paid Mr. Lozoya $ 10.5 million between 2012 and 2014. In return, the former boss of Pemex would have awarded Odebrecht contracts, including the packaging of a refinery in the state of Hidalgo (center) for $ 64 million. Some bribes were said to have been paid before Mr. Lozoya took over the reins of the oil company. The investigation reveals that these sums would have been used to finance, in 2012, the electoral campaign of Mr. Peña Nieto, then candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, center) who ruled Mexico wholeheartedly from 1929 to 2000 before returning to power from 2012 to 2018.

"He didn't manage alone"

Entry into office on 1st December 2018, leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (“AMLO”) sounded the death knell for the protections enjoyed by Mr. Lozoya. Since then, the latter has been accused of other embezzlement. First, Pemex’s 2013 purchase of a fertilizer plant from the steel company Altos Hornos Mexicanos (AHMSA) for $ 442 million. Much more than the value of this factory, which has been obsolete for fourteen years. In the process, AHMSA transferred $ 3.7 million to bank accounts linked to Mr. Lozoya through the financial circuits used by Odebrecht.

"Emilio did not manage alone", reacted Javier Coello, Mr. Lozoya’s Mexican lawyer, after his detention. All eyes are on Mr. Peña Nieto, suspected of being the principal of these small arrangements between friends. Moreover, Marcelo Odebrecht, the former CEO of the Brazilian company who recognized the biggest corruption scandal on the American subcontinent, met between 2010 and 2013, Mr. Peña Nieto on four occasions.

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