President López Obrador has formally declared his assets, but there isn’t much to declare.
His only asset is a country house in Palenque, Chiapas, but even that property is not legally his: the legal owners are his four sons. The president said he has the legal right to use and enjoy the house “until I cease to exist, that is the agreement stated in the public ownership documents of the 12,000-square-meter property.”
The president insisted that his property is not a ranch “because a ranch and a farm are a step away from being an estate.”
“I am not a rancher . . . my parents lived on the 12,000 [square] meters, but [the land] produces nothing. I have planted trees, but they are for our own use. These are fruit and timber-yielding trees,” he said.
López Obrador’s declaration of assets also states that he has neither a credit card nor a checking account.
He does have two investment accounts, valued at 446,068 pesos (US $23,000).
Also released this morning was the declaration of assets of the president’s wife, Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller. One asset is a 2.7-million-peso house in which the couple live, located in the Mexico City borough of Tlalpan.
She also listed three properties in Puebla, a 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan valued at 353,000 pesos, a second vehicle worth 292,900 pesos and jewelry, paintings, sculptures and furnishings.
Value of the assets came to just over 8 million pesos.
Gutiérrez reported monthly income of 117,500 pesos, while the president earns 108,744 pesos.
López Obrador said all government employees, without exception, would have to present their declaration of assets. He said they are “honest people and their assets are the fruit of their honest work.”
Source: Milenio (sp), El Heraldo de México (sp)
