A former National Action Party (PAN) lawmaker and the party’s candidate for president in the 1994 election has filed a defamation complaint against President López Obrador.
Diego Fernández de Cevallos announced on Twitter that he personally filed the complaint at the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) on Tuesday.
The 80-year-old former politician, neither friend nor admirer of the president, said his complaint is related to recent accusations made against him by “the corrupt predator who currently sullies the National Palace.”
Fernández’s complaint, which he published on Twitter, says López Obrador – “using the assets and resources of the state” – has accused him of “serious crimes.”
He objected to the president’s claim that he is “linked to a group opposed to his government” — Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) — “that receives funding from the United States government.”
Fernández wrote that López Obrador has accused MCCI of opposing the use of public resources for the benefit of Mexico’s poorest.
“In his words, he described that conduct as a crime of treason,” the ex-politician wrote. He denied any involvement with MCCI.
“… It’s false … that I am – or have been – directly or indirectly ‘linked’ to Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (an organization that already gave a clear and deserved response to the slanderer).”
“… It’s false … that with resources of a [foreign] government or of third parties I oppose the government of López Obrador. The truth is that I oppose it … in exercise of my right, with my own resources, … openly expressing my profound repudiation of [the president’s] conduct, taking into account that he doesn’t respect the power invested in him, makes a mockery of the law and scorns those he governs because he is solely obsessed with destroying, defaming and distracting.”
Fernández also took umbrage at López Obrador’s accusation that he committed an “illegal and immoral maneuver” as a lawyer in a case in which the beverage company Jugos del Valle was awarded a large tax refund from the federal tax agency, the SAT.
Fernández acknowledged that he represented Jugos del Valle in the case but denied the president’s allegation that he was involved in underhanded dealings.
He noted that he had demanded that López Obrador present proof of his allegations and report them to the FGR. But the president refused in both cases, Fernández wrote.
Fernández asked Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero to summon López Obrador for an interview if he considers his complaint to be “legal and appropriate.”
The president should be interviewed about the content of the complaint and asked to provide proof for his accusations, the former lawmaker wrote.
Widely known as “El Jefe Diego,” or “Diego the Chief,” Fernández said in a radio interview that it was “very possible” that López Obrador is not only guilty of defamation but also of improper and abusive exercise of public office. He predicted that the president will “shield himself like a coward” and avoid accountability for the accusations he made against him.
Fernández, who was runner-up in the 1994 presidential election to Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate Ernesto Zedillo, called on citizens to turn out in massive numbers at the June 6 elections and vote against the ruling Morena party so that Mexicans don’t have to live subjugated to “the whims of a rogue” intent on dividing and distracting the nation.
Source: El Universal (sp)
