In an attempt to draw attention to a possible case of corruption, lawmakers with the conservative National Action Party (PAN) presented a Lego-style toy model of the luxury home in which President López Obrador’s oldest son lived in the United States.
A report published in late January revealed that José Ramón López Beltrán and his wife rented a million-dollar home in Houston from a high-ranking executive with Baker Hughes, an oil sector company that has lucrative contracts with the state oil company Pemex.
López Beltrán, who has since moved to another Houston home purchased in his wife’s name, has denied any conflict of interest.
Presenting “The Gray House” Lego-style kit at a press conference in the Senate on Tuesday, Senator Xóchitl Gálvez said the idea was to remind the public that there are a lot of unanswered questions about the scandal.
“They haven’t explained where the money [to rent the house] came from, how much the president’s son earns, how long they really lived there,” she said.
“… Hopefully the federal Attorney General’s Office will serve justice in such an embarrassing case of double standards,” the PAN senator said, alluding to the contrast between the luxurious life López Beltrán apparently lives in the United States and his father’s much-vaunted austerity.
“This house represents the privileges [of past officials] that they criticized so much but never ended,” Gálvez said.
In a video posted to Twitter, the senator said the gray house represents the “impunity, corruption and the gray [or drab] government they are.”
She told the press conference that the kit of toy bricks is a prototype and that she would hand over the patent to anyone interested in producing it on a large scale.
“It’s just a game, but I believe that [governing] the country is much more serious than a game,” Gálvez said.
“… We’re going to continue denouncing corruption,” said the senator, who revealed last year she had aspirations to become the next mayor of Mexico City.
José Ramón López Beltrán responded with humor on Twitter, saying he’d buy one for his son.Voy a comprarle uno a Salo 🤣 #LEGO #OposicionMoralmenteDerrotada. pic.twitter.com/a8TxFOocDl
— José Ramón López Beltrán (@30JR41_) March 29, 2022
“… Corrupt people are in [López Obrador’s] government, his sons are corrupt, his niece is corrupt, his brothers are corrupt. That’s what we want to make clear with this game,” Gálvez said.
López Beltrán, who said last month that he works as a legal advisor for a Houston-based property development company, responded to the PAN’s publicity stunt in a Twitter post.
“I’m going to buy one for Salo,” he wrote, referring to his son in a post that included a photograph of the PAN lawmakers with a miniature version of his former abode.
López Beltrán added a laughing emoji and the hashtags #LEGO and #OposicionMoralmenteDerrotada (Morally Defeated Opposition) to his post.
The PAN is currently the main opposition party, occupying the second highest number of seats after the ruling Morena party in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
With reports from El Universal
