López Obrador assures that the Mexican Attorney General’s Office investigation against Peña Nieto is not a retaliatory measure

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has pointed out that the investigation opened by the Mexican Attorney General’s Office against former president Peña Nieto for allegedly receiving irregular transfers of 26 million pesos (about 1.2 million euros) in a bank account in Spain does not respond to possible reprisals.

“It is in a kind way a ‘volada’ not to say that it is a slander. (…) We have nothing to hide,” the Mexican president pointed out this Monday in his usual press conference before the possibility that such investigation is caused by retaliation.

In this way, López Obrador has assured that he “does not establish complicity relations with anyone” nor does he try to cover up for anyone, referring to the open case against the former Mexican president, as reported by the newspaper ‘Milenio’.

“Our adversaries, who are good at inventing things, talk about pacts and agreements. Then they would like us to hide information to say that they are protecting former president Peña Nieto”, he said, adding that this is not the case and that they act “with transparency”.

The head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) of the Treasury, Pablo Gómez Álvarez, indicated last week that the investigation has been opened after filing a complaint for possible operations with resources of illicit origin.

“A scheme was detected in which a former president of the Republic obtained economic benefits, in this scheme, the former president, by means of international transfers received 26 million pesos”, he explained.

The Mexican president has emphasized that at the beginning of his mandate, a consultation was made to the citizenship with the purpose of prosecuting former presidents for committing alleged irregularities, although it did not have binding results.

“I even publicly thanked Mr. Peña Nieto, and I say this to the four winds, and let it be heard loud and clear, because he did not interfere, as Fox and Calderón did, in the presidential election”, said the Mexican president, as reported by the Mexican newspaper ‘El Universal’.

On previous occasions, López Obrador has already assured that Peña Nieto “did not accept” the conditions to prevent him from winning the presidency in the 2018 elections against former presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón, who “defrauded him”.

According to López Obrador, votes were usurped from him to favor the candidate of the right, Felipe Calderón. “Accepting without conceding that the figures express a difference of only half a point. This revision is decisive in the definitive result”, he indicated at the time.