MEXICO .- The rectors and circles of power of some universities in this country found the formula to divert money from public education to private pockets. Instead of using their administrative and academic intelligence mainly in the education of the following generations, they would have used it to steal, defraud and associate for crime.
So far they add 14 universities whose directors are judicially and publicly accused of these crimes while directing the future of physics and quantum, political science, engineering, medicine, research science or economics, to mention some areas.
In the most recent cases, the University of the Americas Puebla is under investigation; the Autonomous University of Mexico City and the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas .
” A modus operandi was created “, warn various voices that ask to put an end to the system.
” It takes advantage of a loophole in the Law of Acquisitions, Leases and Services of the Public Sector, “explained Daniel Moreno, director of the journalistic investigation portal Animal Político.
Political animal that together with the civil organization Mexicans against Corruption uncovered in 2017 the case of 14 universities that awarded contracts for around 170 millions of dollars directly .
Without bidding or competition benefited 128 non-existent companies or if infrastructure or legal personality to provide the services for which they were hired.
The directors allied themselves with various federal ministries to win false contracts. They created shell companies and there they deposited the money to divert it. This case was known as La Estafa Maestra and occurred during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto.
During the Andrés Manuel López Obrador administration, the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Finance blocked the accounts of a university that received around 150 millions of dollars from bank accounts located in Switzerland, among other operations.
Among the universities that accumulate the most irregularities is the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEM) with nine criminal complaints. It is followed by the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEMOR) with seven criminal complaints; the Polytechnic of Chiapas, the Technological University of Nezahualcóyotl and the Autonomous University of Zacatecas “Francisco García Salinas” with 2 complaints, respectively.
The rest have a criminal complaint: the Universidad Veracruzana, the Autónoma of Guerrero, Juárez of the State of Durango, the Intercultural of the State of Mexico, the Technological of the South of the State of Mexico and the Polytechnic of the South of Zacatecas, of Texcoco, of Quintana Roo, the Francisco I. Madero de Hidalgo.
Impunity
The scandal reached one of the highest figures of the Peña Nieto administration: Rosario Robles, former secretary of Social Development (Sedesol) who is accused of allowing the diversion of resources to occur and has been in prison without a sentence for two years .
In addition, four people have been arrested as part of this process. Former Sedesol officials José Antolino Orozco and María de la Luz Vargas as well as Luis Antonio Valenciano, legal representative of a shell company and Esteban Cervantes, shareholder of another front company involved in the criminal plot. Nobody else.
Some of the university rectors have even jumped from one public office to another.
Alejandro Vera, former rector in Morelos, is now director general of the State Council for Science and Technology of the same state, although he signed four agreements for 30 millions of dollars approximately with Sedesol in 2013 for supposed services of the National Crusade against Hunger that were not fulfilled.
Jorge Olvera, rector of the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico became president of the Commission of Rights of the State of Mexico and continues in office despite accusations of diversion of money and unrealized contracts for around 20 millions of dollars.
In the state of Guerrero, the audit determined that there was probable damage to the Public Treasury for some 35 million of dollars because the university could not verify that supposed “consultancies” had been made for the realization of various projects or that the maintenance of different academic units was paid or that software was actually installed.
The same way
In more recent times, three surprised new cases. In Puebla, Rodrigo Gurza, lawyer for the new board of trustees of the University of the Americas Puebla (UDLAP), reported that three complaints were filed against former rector Luis Ernesto Derbez for crimes of organized crime, money laundering , fraud and theft .
The scheme was the same: creation of shell companies to award them contracts.
Gurza also linked in the complaints to the vice-rectors of the UDLAP, Mónica Ruiz Herrera and Mario Vallejo Pérez; to the attorneys of the Jenkins Foundation, Virgilio Salas Rincón and Alejandro González Muñoz, as well as the Jenkins family and the university board of trustees.
Derbez resigned and a new board was created that he appointed rector to a person close to Andrés Manuel López Obrador: former Guerrero legislator Armando Ríos Peter, whom a fraction of the UDLAP refuses to recognize.
In the heart of the country, the rector of the Autonomous University of Mexico City, Tania Rodríguez, recently reported that the institution carries property damage of approximately 20 millions of dollars in its equivalent in pesos.
A similar amount is calculated than It was diverted from the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas (UAT) to a network of shell companies through a fraudulent mechanism similar to that used in La Estafa Maestra.
The Deviations were allegedly authorized by the institution’s administration secretary, Víctor Hugo Guerra, cousin of the entity’s current governor, Francisco Cabeza de Vaca, according to an investigation by the Financial Intelligence Unit.
“A crime that is not punished is doomed to be repeated,” warns Julián Venegas, an analyst on security issues at the Autonomous Metropolitan University. “Investigation folders for the Master Scam were recently opened but it is until now, three years later! Let’s hope it concludes with the restitution of the money and the punishment of the officials involved. ”
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