The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, claimed to be the victim of a smear and slander campaign, after a journalistic investigation was revealed in which it is stated that his son , José Ramón López Beltrán, and his wife, Carolyn Adams, live in the United States surrounded by luxury.
“I have asked the director of Pemex to clarify what this American company receives Pemex contracts and for which the whole scandal of José Ramón my son and his wife was made, all a slander, a baseless scandal, a smear campaign, of course not against José Ramón, unfortunately the children of one have to pay for what their parents do and since my job is to confront the mafia of power and carry out a process of transformation together with many other Mexicans, well, it is not against him directly, even if they damage them, it is against me”, he affirmed.
The Mexican president assured that thanks to the fact that he has not established relationships of complicity with leaders, businessmen and politicians, has the moral authority to confront the “mafia of power” and come out of the slander unscathed.
“Fortunately, always, as the poet Díaz Mirón said, I have come out of the slander unscathed, that is why honesty is very important, you cannot transform a regime of corruption, of injustices, of privileges, you cannot face a mafia of power without moral authority, honesty is the shield that protects. If it were not that, if I established relationships of complicity with leaders, businessmen, politicians, I would not have moral authority or political authority and I would not be able to carry out, together with many women and men, a process of transformation like the one that is underway because I they would be caught, I wouldn’t be able to speak, I wouldn’t be free,” he said.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador described journalists Carmen Aristegui and Carlos Loret de Mola as “dishonest, corrupt and mercenaries” when reporting to the investigation that his son, José Ramón López Beltrán, lived in a house in Houston, Texas, United States, belonging to a contractor for Petróleos Mexicanos.
“It is Claudio X González (businessman) because they owned or felt they owned Mexico with dishonest journalists like Carmen Aristegui, journalists not only dishonest but also corrupt and mercenaries capable of inventing any situation like Loret de Mola, the lady who is with Claudio X Gon zález who belongs to the group of Aguilar Camín (writer), Maria Amparo Casar (analyst),” he said.
The Tabasco president asked journalist Carlos Loret de Mola to make known how much that he earns per month in his Latinus environment and who are the companies that pay him.
“They set up all this and once and for all I’ll tell you what I want to ask you, for the sake of transparency to Loret de Mola if she can tell me, she could tell us how much she earns per month and who pays her, I will wait for the answer. I do not want, because it is important to clarify it, that they hide behind the fact that it is their private activity because it is not like that, it is a public activity and it is also necessary to know which companies are the ones that are financing, who are the owners of the companies, “he said.
López Obrador also announced that he will ask the United States ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, to clarify the resources granted by the United States to the Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) organization of businessman Claudio X González.
“As I also take this opportunity to request the United States government , today when I see the ambassador I am going to remind him, why the United States government grants money to the group of Claudio X González ”, he commented.
These statements by the president come weeks after an investigation by Latinus, headed by journalist Carlos Loret de Mola, and by Mexicans Contra to Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), an organization related to businessman Claudio X. González, where it is stated that José Ramón López Beltrán and his wife, Carolyn Adams, have occupied two residences north of Houston, each one valued at nearly 1 million dollars.
According to the investigation, López Beltrán lived in Houston in a property belonging to a senior manager of Baker Hughes, a company oil company with current contracts for more than 100 million dollars with the Government of Mexico.
After living in the mansion of the director of Baker Hughes, a contractor for Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), López Beltrán moved to a new residence in Harris County, which is in the name of his partner, Carolyn Adams, according to MCCI.
The first residence that López Beltrán and Adams occupied, between 2019 and 2019, belonged to Keith L. Schilling of Baker Hughes, who in August 2019 signed in Villahermosa, Tabasco, a Pemex contract for 85 million dollars, according to the investigation.
In addition, the report indicates, the president’s son would travel in a luxury car, valued at 68,675 dollars, in the name of his wife.
PEMEX’s explanation
The director of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Octavio Romero, denied this Wednesday that the State company has favored the Baker Hughes company after the scandal that a son of the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, lived in a house in Texas belonging to a contractor.
“The civil association called Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) lies when it states that in August 2019 the Baker Hughes company was awarded a direct allocation for 89 millions of dollars”, Romero asserted in the daily conference at the National Palace.
“To make it clearer, in Petróleos Mexicanos there are no consented companies, nor have they been created in the present Administration,” said the Pemex executive.
The official also questioned the information published last Saturday in a column of the newspaper Reforma that indicated that Baker Hughes obtained a contract extension for 100 million dollars in September 2019 after the move of López Beltrán .
Romero accused the journalist columnist of “ignoring the various types of contracts” that exist in Pemex, assuring that it is a “referential agreement” that allows “service orders” to be made. .
Admitted that Baker Hughes is in fifth place of the 25 companies that bill Pemex the most, with current contracts for 7,589 million pesos ( more than 151 million dollars).
But he argued that the billings of all the contractors have increased because the state oil company has increased by 68 % of their capex (investments in capital goods).
“These increases in billing are explained because worldwide Pemex, together with Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company, were the only (oil) companies that increased their investment spending significantly, especially in the covid years,” he said.
The journalists’ response to the president
During his radio program at the station 88.1 of Grupo Radio Centro, in Mexico City, journalist Carmen Aristegui defended herself against the Mexican president’s statements who said that the journalist is “dishonest”.
“He says that I am dishonest and if the president says that I am dishonest then I tell him that the dishonest is he l because he is making false, insulting statements against me, and the president says that I am a liar, I tell him that he is the liar because he is affirming things that are not supported and well, there is this panorama unfortunate on all four sides“, said Carmen Aristegui this Wednesday, February 9.
For his part the journalist Carlos Loret de Mola, in his news space on W Radio 96.9, pointed out that the Mexican president is “desperate” before the journalistic investigation.
“ He asked for accounts of my salary… The president is desperate, kicking the president drowned, and why does he do all this? Why do you want to divert attention like that? because he wants us to forget what the real issue is, and the real issue is very simple, the luxuries of his son in Houston, the gray mansion in Houston that belongs to a senior executive of an oil company that has contracts with Pemex for 151 million dollars”, said Loret de Mola in his radio program on February 9 2022.
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