The National Transparency Institute (Inai) has ordered the president’s office to release details pertaining to President López Obrador’s land travel expenses.
The directive comes after the office refused to provide information to an individual who requested details about the vehicle fleet at López Obrador’s disposal as well as the costs to maintain the fleet and to purchase fuel for the cars in which the president travels.
Inai commissioner Óscar Guerra Ford ordered the president’s office to carry out an exhaustive search of its files in order to provide a response to the applicant.
“The individual requested to know which vehicles and how many vehicles the president of the republic uses for his commutes between his home and the National Palace and vice versa, as well as for his various tours within the country,” he said.
Guerra said that the refusal to supply the information requested was improper considering that the president’s office previously did provide a response to a person who requested details about López Obrador’s travel between Aguascalientes and Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo, on January 18, the date on which a petroleum pipeline exploded in the latter town, killing or injuring more than 100 people.
In that case, the official said that the president’s office provided information about the make and model of the vehicle in which López Obrador traveled as well as the details of its license plate.
To find the information requested by the more recent applicant, Guerra ordered the president’s office to carry out a search of all files in its logistics-related departments.
Since taking office last December, López Obrador has sometimes continued to travel in his own Volkswagen Jetta and has adopted a range of other personal austerity measures to help cut government costs.
He only travels on commercial flights, largely eschews personal security, lives in a private home rather than what was the official presidential residence and earns less than half the salary paid to his predecessor.
(He announced last week that he and his wife and son would move into the National Palace following the end of the school year. He will be the first president to live in the palace since Porfirio Díaz in 1911.)
López Obrador has also put the presidential plane and other government-owned aircraft up for sale and said earlier this month that the proceeds will help fund efforts to curb migration.
Source: El Universal (sp)
