Despite being cleared of influence peddling in the purchase of a luxury residence by his wife, President Enrique Peña Nieto has nonetheless apologized to the nation, recognizing that the allegations had disturbed many Mexican citizens.
An investigation was launched after a media investigation revealed that First Lady Angelica Rivera and Finance Minister Luis Videgaray had purchased properties from construction company Grupo Higa that later received government contracts.
To great expectation, Public Comptroller Virgilio Andrade last week called a press conference to release the findings of the six-month probe, which included interviews with 111 civil servants.
Andrade said the investigations showed that Peña Nieto had no personal involvement in awarding Grupo Higa a role in the construction of the first high-speed train in Mexico. (That contract was later cancelled.) He acknowledged that Higa had built a house in an upscale Mexico City neighborhood – that became known as the “Casa Blanca” – for Rivera before her husband became president, and allowed her favorable payment terms. The same firm also sold Videgaray a luxury property in 2012. Rivera has since sold her rights to her mansion and agreed to pay three years’ rent on the property.
In addition, Higa reportedly obtained many contracts when Pena Nieto was the governor of the State of Mexico from 2005 to 2011.
Under the letter of Mexican law, there was no conflict of interest involved in the awarding of the government contracts or the purchase of the properties, the investigation concluded.
Although he is a prominent government official appointed by Peña Nieto, Andrade insisted the investigation had been carried out in a lawful, independent manner.
The ten-month “White House” scandal has seriously damaged Peña Nieto’s credibility and weakened his ability to govern, analysts agree. His “reformist” administration that started so brightly quickly began to unravel, compounded by his feeble response to the disappearance and presumed murder of 43 students, a slowing growth rate, weak peso, and the prison break of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
The social restlessness that the “White House” scandal provoked was probably the main reason why the president felt it necessary this week to offer “a sincere apology” to Mexicans who he acknowledged were “hurt and outraged” by the allegations, while stressing that he and his wife’s conduct were “fully legal.”
Predictably, the results of the probe were ridiculed by the opposition and Peña Nieto’s critics. Ricardo Anaya, the incoming national president of the National Action Party (PAN), called the investigation “an authentic joke that offends Mexicans and only confirms how much impunity and unpunished corruption harms our country.”
Andres Manual Lopez Obrador, the fiery, left-wing former presidential candidate, and now leader of the Morena Party, called the exoneration of Peña Nieto “a farce” and that “only a fool could have believed there would have been any other outcome” given that Andrade was asked to undertake the investigation by the president himself.
Social media was abuzz with humorous takes on the results of the investigation, with several tweeters wondering why it took six months to come to a conclusion that could have been wrapped up in an afternoon.