Mexico City, Mexico — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reported that the Government of Mexico is hoping to recover money in the Garcia Luna case. López Obrador says Mexico is hoping to recover some of the $650 million USD that has come to light.
“They raised a lot of money with contracts that were made with the federal government, public money that is estimated at around $650 million, and all that money was invested in Florida, in apartments, in houses, in yachts,” he said.
He said that money is part of the nation’s assets. The money was located during the Florida trial against Genaro García Luna, the former Secretary of Public Security who served during the six-year term of Felipe Calderón.
“Two days ago it was defined that what is being done by the Government of Mexico is appropriate to rescue all these assets, reincorporate them into the national heritage,” he explained.
The head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Pablo Gómez Álvarez, pointed out in a morning conference that the civil lawsuit promoted by the federation as part of the policy against corruption and impunity is historic.
“The Mexican government in history has made many international claims, but a trial of this type, of a corruption scheme to recover the product, there is no record because this is a new characteristic that Mexico is showing,” he said.
The corrupt network of García Luna in the six-year term of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa extended to that of Enrique Peña Nieto. The total assets in both periods of government are valued, to date, at just under $650 million USD.
Gómez Álvarez says that from 2006 to 2012, just over $225.2 million was recorded. The management from 2012 to 2018 corresponds to $420.7 million USD.
There were also 40 front companies used to hide actual assets and owners from the corruption network. The modus operandi includes flows of money that were taken to Barbados and directed to Florida, he explained.
“This is emblematic because it shows us how the system of corruption operated for 60 or 70 years. (…) It was not only the budget, it was also the entire public administration that was the victim of corruption as a system. (…) This is the first government that declares and has acted to dismantle the corrupt state,” he said.
President López Obrador reaffirmed that the predominance of corrupt governments for 36 years produced a process of degradation of politics in Mexico that impacted economic growth and development, which generated a social welfare crisis.
