A grandmother who hosts a popular YouTube cooking channel has surpassed 3 million subscribers in less than a year and her modest cooking demonstrations have garnered nearly 174 million views.
Doña Ángela Garfias Vázquez, a 70-year-old native of Michoacán, launched her YouTube channel from a rustic kitchen in August 2019, cooking traditional Mexican recipes and winning instant appeal, attracting more than a million subscribers in the first two months.
De Mi Rancho a tu Cocina (From my farm to your kitchen), which offers cooking lessons using ingredients she gathers from around her farm, have appealed to people across the globe and her videos are now presented with English subtitles.
On Tuesday Doña Ángela, as she is best known, thanked her fans for their support. “My people, I woke up today with the great news that we are already more than 3 million on YouTube. I am very happy and grateful to all of you,” she wrote on Facebook, where she has nearly 3.5 million followers. “My family, my people, may God bless you, you have made me very happy because you are part of my new family. I love you very much.”
Last month, Forbes named her one of the 100 most powerful women in Mexico due to her global reach, alongside such luminaries as singer Natalia Lafourcade, actress Salma Hayek and Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.
Assisted by her daughter, Doña Ángela presents recipes that are humble and explore Mexico’s culinary offerings. Doña Ángela shows viewers how to make enchiladas, green mole, chiles rellenos (stuffed chiles), chicken soup and other classics of Mexican cuisine, all of which she cooks on a wood-fired stove.
She also gives gardening tips and uses traditional Mexican cookware, such as clay pots, pewter casserole dishes, the comal (clay griddle) and the molcajete, a volcanic stone mortar and pestle.
Fans were quick to congratulate the septuagenarian on her accomplishment with comments like “Through you, I keep remembering the tenderness of my grandmother who is no longer with me and “thank you for making us feel part of your family.”
Mexico’s real coronavirus case tally could be more than 7 million, according to an infectious disease specialist, a figure more than 17 times higher than the current count of confirmed cases.
A total of 408,449 people have tested positive in Mexico as of Wednesday while there have been 45,361 confirmed Covid-19 deaths. Those figures yield a fatality rate of 11.1 per 100 cases, meaning that one in every nine people diagnosed with Covid-19 dies.
The global rate is 3.9 based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University that shows that more than 17.1 million people around the world have tested positive for Covid-19 and almost 670,000 people have died.
But Amesh A. Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, United States, told the news agency Bloomberg that a fair estimate of the real fatality rate would be 0.6 considering that many cases go undetected.
If that rate is applied to Mexico’s official Covid-19 death numbers, total case numbers here would total about 7.1 million.
Mexico’s testing rate is certainly low – only 7,286 tests per 1 million inhabitants had been performed by Wednesday, according to the statistics portal Statista – meaning that large numbers of cases, especially mild and asymptomatic ones, go undetected.
But the assumption that the fatality rate here is on par with the world as a whole is likely flawed.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, the government’s coronavirus point man, has said on innumerable occasions that Mexico’s death toll is as high as it is because of the high prevalence of health problems such as hypertension, diabetes and obesity, all of which can cause complications for coronavirus patients.
The government concedes that many cases go undetected but would likely argue that the real case numbers are not as high as Adalja suggests.
Early in the pandemic, the Health Ministry estimated that there were about eight undetected cases for every confirmed one. If the same estimation was applied now, total cases in Mexico would be about 3.7 million and the fatality rate would be 1.2 per 100 cases, double Adalja’s global estimate.
In any case, the case numbers are undoubtedly much higher than those reported, and according to Adalja, Mexico’s coronavirus outbreak “is out of control.”
“If you’re not testing, tracing, isolating, you’re going to have chains of transmission that land on vulnerable people and you’re going to have high hospitalizations and deaths,” he said.
While coronavirus cases are almost certainly being drastically undercounted, the same can be said about Covid-19 deaths.
An analysis presented by health authorities last weekend that looked at deaths in 20 states between March 15 and June 27 found that fatalities were 55% higher than in previous years.
Excess deaths in the 20 states totaled 71,315 but only 22,400 were classified as being caused by Covid-19.
Many of the other excess deaths can likely be attributed to people delaying treatment for a range of medical problems due to fear they could be exposed to coronavirus as well as overburdened hospitals but it is probable that more than just 22,400 were caused by Covid-19.
Bodies are stored in an audio-visual room at a Tamaulipas hospital.
A hospital in Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas, has begun storing the bodies of Covid-19 victims in an audio-visual room because its mortuary is full.
The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) said in a statement that it had approved the provisional use of the No. 6 Regional General Hospital’s audio-visual room as a morgue due to the high number of deaths caused by the infectious disease.
IMSS, which operates the hospital, said the room was adapted for that purpose and that it meets the conditions required for the storage of bodies.
It said that a high number of Covid-19 fatalities had occurred at the hospital as the coronavirus outbreak and death toll in southern Tamaulipas continue to grow.
IMSS said that funeral homes and crematoriums in and around Ciudad Madero are overwhelmed and cannot pick up additional bodies from the hospital as quickly as they usually would.
The daily tally of coronavirus cases and deaths. Deaths are numbers reported and not necessarily those that occurred each day. milenio
The institute added that the construction of a new mortuary on land adjacent to the hospital has been approved but it’s unclear when it will be completed.
Although an overwhelming number of bodies would suggest a high number of deaths, Ciudad Madero has recorded only 39 Covid-19 deaths, according to state government data, while fatalities in the neighboring municipalities of Tampico and Altamira total 83 and 33, respectively.
A refrigerated trailer with the capacity to store 100 bodies arrived at the Carlos Canseco General Hospital in Tampico last week, the newspaper Reforma reported.
Tamaulipas’ statewide Covid-19 death toll is 968 while just under 16,000 people have tested positive.
Ciudad Madero has recorded the fifth highest number of cases among the state’s 43 municipalities, with 1,496 as of Wednesday. Ranking first to fourth for cases numbers are Reynosa, Matamoros, Tampico and Nuevo Laredo.
Tamaulipas Health Minister Gloria Marina Gamboa said earlier this week that seven hospitals in Ciudad Victoria, Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, Tampico, Reynosa and Ciudad Mante are completely full due to a spike in admissions of coronavirus patients.
The national coronavirus tally rose to 408,449 on Wednesday with 5,752 new confirmed cases registered by the federal Health Ministry. Just over 7% of those cases – 29,631 – are active, official data shows, while there are 89,978 suspected cases.
The official Covid-19 death toll rose to 45,361 on Wednesday with 485 additional fatalities registered. Mexico is close to passing the United Kingdom for Covid-19 deaths to rank third in the world behind the United States and Brazil.
At the Health Ministry’s coronavirus press briefing on Wednesday night, Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía presented data that showed that Covid-19 death numbers began to decline in recent weeks.
He also showed that case numbers in Guanajuato stabilized between epidemiological weeks 28 and 29 – July 4 to 18 – after rising steadily during several previous weeks. Covid-19 deaths in the Bajío region state declined 37% between weeks 28 and 29.
Guanajuato has recorded 19,648 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic, the fifth highest tally in the country, and 923 Covid-19 deaths.
In Michoacán, case numbers increased until week 25 – June 14 to 20 – before declining in week 26 and remaining relatively stable until week 28.
Health Minister Alcocer: when a vaccine is available, the government will purchase as much as necessary to inoculate the public.
Alomía said that estimated case numbers increased 16% between weeks 28 and 29, explaining that it remains to be seen whether the spike is the beginning of a “new outbreak” or just a “ripple in the plateau.”
He said that Covid-19 deaths have been on the wane in Michoacán since epidemiological week 24 – June 7 to 13 – and declined 52% between weeks 28 and 29.
The Pacific coast state has recorded 9,329 confirmed cases, the 16th highest tally among the 32 states, and 710 Covid-19 deaths, according to federal data.
Located northeast of Michoacán, Querétaro has had a “very controlled” epidemic, Alomía said, presenting data that showed that case numbers were extremely low until epidemiological week 18 – April 26 to May 2 – when they began to rise.
Weekly cases rose to just below 300 in mid-May and remained relatively stable until early July. Case numbers spiked in week 28 – July 4 to 11 – but declined 14% the following week, Alomía said.
The health official said that Covid-19 deaths in Querétaro have been declining since mid-June and fell 25% between weeks 28 and 29.
The Bajío region state has recorded 3,457 confirmed cases, the fourth lowest tally in Mexico after Colima, Zacatecas and Nayarit, and 463 Covid-19 deaths.
With total case numbers having increased from 90,664 at the end of May to more than 408,000 currently – a 350% hike – and the economy in tatters, Mexico, like countries around the world, is anxiously waiting for the development of a vaccine.
If and when one becomes available, the government is prepared to spend as much as it needs to inoculate the public, Health Minister Jorge Alcocer told reporters at Wednesday night’s coronavirus press briefing.
Flanked by Alomía and the government’s coronavirus czar, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, Alcocer said it was unclear how much Mexico will have to pay to buy vaccines but estimated that the cost could be US $20 each.
But the health minister, who has seldom appeared at the nightly Covid conferences, stressed that the cost is unimportant because the purchase of vaccines represents a much-needed “investment” in health.
“In the Mexican government we don’t speak about budget limits. … Everything necessary will be done to cover … the purchase of what is needed.”
Virus-free schools the only way to serve children that lack the resources for remote learning.
Back in the middle of March, somewhat optimistically, the Mexican government conceded to closing the nation’s schools for a month as a preventative measure against the spread of Covid-19.
From where we are now, looking back on a fairly chaotic summer, we can more accurately label this decree as somewhat naive, with many schools still shut or only just beginning to open once again.
The restlessness of the government throughout the pandemic to get schools back up and running has been tangible, and it really is no surprise given the stakes at hand. Reopening workplaces without reopening schools eliminates the possibility of childcare for working parents, thus undermining millions of families in their efforts to get back out and provide for themselves.
Despite the risks involved with reopening places of congregation too early, it has always seemed to the government as though rebooting the education system is their golden ticket out of the pandemic.
It isn’t much of a surprise then that a new strategy for getting schools back up to function has been doing the rounds over the last few days, a product of extensive frameworking from Mexico’s Public Education Ministry. This outline describes a return to academic activities based on a new “hybrid educational model that will involve both remote education and in-class education.”
The ministry went on to insist that the specifics of each case will be left up to local authorities and will be based upon each state’s specific needs, but the overall framework would still apply nationwide.
The hybrid system that is proposed, while seemingly a radical advancement in the way teaching will be conducted, has already been means-tested sporadically throughout the pandemic. Ever since schools closed down, a strong emphasis has been placed on remote learning and ever more elaborate ways to extend the tools of learning to students within their homes. In many states, public TV has been showing educational programs, teachers have been conducting lessons in online video chats, and inter-pupil communication has taken advantage of various social media apps to share notes, advice, and learning resources.
Unfortunately, the problem with using a predominantly technological framework as the future basis of education under Covid is its inherent exclusivity. Access to adequate learning resources becomes contingent on various factors that all, at their root, come down to economic security.
Strong internet access is essential for large bandwidth group sessions while oftentimes particular learning software is only supported by recent computer models. This specific tech can be costly and if they don’t break the bank, they often bend it to the point of acute anxiety.
While the government may claim that anyone’s television can link up to educational programming, it is no secret that this medium barely scratches the surface of a rich and well-rounded curriculum. These programs, which now run around the clock on public service channels, were initially created as part of the telesecundaria program which aimed to support a teacher-led educational system but have now become the exclusive teaching input for thousands of families; understandably, this isn’t a level of education that will be sustainable in the long run.
So what is the solution? While it is difficult to completely fulfill everybody’s educational needs in a time of crisis, efforts need to be made to construct a sustainable schooling system that can cater to the needs of society’s poorest. Implementing powerful internet and preparing for a technological future can be a long-term goal, but more importantly, when it does become safe to open fully, schools need to ensure that they stay virus-free. This is the only way to serve immediately the children that lack the resources for remote learning.
The Ministry of Public Education has implemented guidelines for schools as to how to maintain an environment free of contamination and virus-breeding, but these need to be codified and enforced throughout the states. Ideas to “maximize the use of open space” and “ensure widespread access to water and soap” are welcome, but feel characteristically lax and simply advisory.
Stricter rules may in fact be necessary, such as a measure to close a school for 15 days if even a single case of Covid is detected among staff or students. This is currently a recommended measure, but still one that seems capable of preserving schools and educational hubs as locations free of potential outbreaks.
As is so often the case, and especially in the context of this pandemic, some preventative measures are simply not going far enough. Though the government is making a valiant effort to supply the educational needs of the nation by using the inevitable technological future as a framework, it seems that the solution in many ways comes down to reinforcing the distancing measures in place and taking the threat seriously on the journey back to normality.
This is the only way of ensuring that the very poorest in our educational system can continue to learn in safety, just like everyone else.
More than 200 health care workers and residents of Acala, Chiapas, took to the streets for a second time Wednesday to demand the release of Dr. Gerardo Vicente Grajales Yuca, who was arrested last weekend for abuse of authority related to the death of a coronavirus patient.
Marchers gathered in front of city hall to demand his release, calling his arrest “unfair” and “arbitrary.”
Supporters of Grajales, head of emergency and critical medicine at a government-run hospital in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, say the imprisoned doctor had asked the family of Miguel Arturo Ramírez López, a former state politician, to purchase a medication that wasn’t readily available in the hospital, but the man died on July 7.
His daughter, Karen Alejandra Ramírez Molin, filed a complaint with police on July 17. Authorities took the cardiologist into custody on Sunday evening, announcing that his arrest occurred “within the framework” of the fight against corruption.
Antonio Juárez Navarro, the doctor’s lawyer, explained to local media that the Covid-19 patient did not have social security, so treatment could have been denied. However, Grajales agreed to treat him anyway but simply did not have access to the necessary medication.
During yesterday’s protest, which was live-streamed on social media, one resident stated, “Acala demands justice and immediate freedom for Dr. Grajales Yuca, immediate freedom for our distinguished emergency doctor who is (detained) simply for saving lives, a doctor who is dedicated to working humbly and with dignity in this pandemic.”
Presidents of more than 10 medical associations, sent a letter to President López Obrador saying that medical personnel are being unfairly blamed for deficiencies in the country’s health system.
The letter called the arrest of Grajales “violent, abusive and illegal,” rejecting the claim by the Chiapas Attorney General’s Office that the doctor was guilty of abuse of authority.
Another protest demanding the release of Grajales is being planned for Friday in front of Mexico City’s National Palace.
Police in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, have formed a new squad called “Capta Leopardo” to help keep tourists safe.
Municipal security director Juan Ramón Alfaro Gaxiola announced Wednesday that the division, made up of traffic and tourist police and water rescue officers, was created to patrol tourist areas and enforce environmental protection rules.
“Upon instructions from our mayor, Luis Guillermo Benítez Torres, today the special group of the Capta Leopardo has been formed; agents are bilingual and have ecological knowledge in order to provide security to the citizens of the port of Mazatlán, as well as to tourists that visit the port,” Alfaro stated.
Astrid Macias Fregoso, director of the Tourist Attention and Protection Center, stressed that Capta Leopardo’s duties will not only ensure the safety of citizens and tourists but reinforce environmental awareness to keep the beaches clean. The group will patrol coastal areas from Delfin Beach to the lighthouse and Isla de Piedra.
These Campbell's soup cans sport up to three warning labels.
New warning labels informing consumers about products that could be unhealthy are starting to arrive in supermarkets across Mexico.
The black octagons are placed on products that are high in saturated fat, trans fat, sugar, sodium or calories and are appearing on cans of soup, evaporated milk, jam and cookies, among other items.
Products containing caffeine and sweeteners will also bear warning labels indicating that they should not be consumed by children, and those that have one or more warnings cannot include children’s characters, animations, cartoons, celebrities, athletes or pets on their packaging.
The warnings are in addition to a labeling system that breaks down the percentages of total sugars, saturated fat, other fats, sodium and calories.
The labels are similar to programs already underway in Chile, Peru and Uruguay.
Jam labels indicate high sugar content.
The government discussed the measure with health organizations and food manufacturers before it was approved by Congress last year.
By law, any products that exceed the government’s health standards must carry the warning labels by October although companies will have a grace period until March 31, 2021, in order to transition to becoming fully compliant.
The warnings are meant to combat obesity and overweight, maladies that affect three out of four Mexicans, as well as diabetes, which was declared an epidemic in the country in 2016 and affects 8.7 million people. Mexico also has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the world, a public health problem estimated to represent 3.2% of the country’s gross domestic product.
According to Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, 67% of those who have died from the coronavirus in Mexico had chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity or cardiovascular disease, comorbidities associated with the consumption of junk food.
But not everyone is on-side with the new labels, which have met with strong opposition from some sectors of the food industry. Bosco de la Vega Valladolid, head of Mexico’s National Agricultural Council (CNA), said the warnings would only serve to “demonize” food products and negatively affect the economy.
Mexico’s Business Coordination Council (CCE), which includes the CNA and the food and beverage association, issued a statement criticizing the new system after the new regulations were announced.
“The ministries of economy and health agreed to impose a labeling standard that will not solve the health problem that Mexico suffers but, on the contrary, will result in less information being available to consumers,” it said, claiming that authorities “dismissed the opinion and scientific evidence presented by hundreds of organizations and the private sector that participated in the public consultation.”
The European Union, the United States, Costa Rica and Guatemala expressed concern to the World Trade Organization when the measure was introduced last year, stating that “the proposal restricts trade more than necessary,” the WTO reported.
The Mexican economy recorded its worst result ever in the second quarter of the year as coronavirus restrictions forced the closure of nonessential businesses for the majority of the period.
GDP shrank 18.9% between April and June compared to the same period last year, according to preliminary data published by the national statistics agency Inegi on Thursday.
The contraction is more than twice as big as the economy’s previous worst result, an 8.6% slump recorded in the second quarter of 1995.
As disheartening as it is, the second-quarter downturn was not unexpected as nationwide restrictions shut down all nonessential businesses for the entirety of April and May and the government urged citizens to stay at home.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a 19.4% drop in economic activity in the second quarter, while several banks predicted contractions of 18-20%.
Data shows that the industrial sector, including manufacturing, construction and mining, shrank 26% between April and June compared to the same period of 2019 while the services sector, including commercial activity, transportation, financial and media, fell 15.6%.
Output of the primary sector, including agriculture and fishing, declined by a much more modest 0.3% compared to the April-June period of 2019.
The economy-wide second quarter contraction was the fifth consecutive quarterly decline for the Mexican economy, meaning that President López Obrador has only overseen growth in one quarter since he took office in December 2018 promising to boost GDP by an average of 4% during his six-year term.
The 18.9% slump follows a 2.2% annual contraction in the first quarter of 2020. Compared to the January-March period, GDP declined 17.3% in the second quarter, according to preliminary data. Inegi will publish final second-quarter results on August 26.
Referring to the year-over-year decline, Pantheon Macroeconomics economist Andrés Abadía wrote in a note to clients that “this is a horrendous number, but hardly a surprise.”
“The deterioration of the labor market has been severe and the pandemic is far from controlled,” he added.
López Obrador: ‘Our strategy has worked. Now we are recovering.’
Indeed, as the economy sank in the second quarter, unemployment shot up, with more than 12 million formal and informal sector jobs lost in April and May alone, according to the Bank of México.
Central Bank Deputy Governor Jonathan Heath said earlier this month that a wider measure showed that more than 34 million people are in need of work, while as many as 16 million Mexicans may have fallen into extreme poverty between February and May, according to academics.
López Obrador asserted Thursday that the economy had reached its lowest point, telling reporters at his regular news conference that “the worst is behind us.”
“Our strategy has worked. Now we are recovering,” he said.
Carlos Serrano, chief economist at BBVA in Mexico City, said the bank predicts that “it will take until the end of 2024 to get back to the level of GDP we had at the end of 2019,” while Alberto Ramos at Goldman Sachs said “we certainly do not share the optimism of a V-shaped recovery, particularly given the conservative/hawkish monetary stance and the timid and poorly targeted fiscal stimulus.”
López Obrador has refused to increase public debt to support the economy amid the coronavirus crisis, telling large companies that they should bail themselves out if they encounter choppy economic waters.
Loans have been offered to small businesses but they are so insignificant – 25,000 pesos or about US $1,100 – that many haven’t even bothered to apply.
Complicating the chances of a recovery in the second half of the year is that coronavirus cases and deaths continue to mount at a steady pace, with 408,449 of the former and 45,361 of the latter as of Wednesday. The real number of cases and deaths are widely believed to be much higher.
The risk of coronavirus infection is currently “red light” maximum in 18 of Mexico’s 32 states and “orange light” in the other 14, according to the federal government’s “stoplight” map.
Varying levels of economic restrictions apply across the country and the recovery for tourism, one of Mexico’s biggest money earners, is expected to be a long and slow process as many people remain wary of traveling.
Uncertainty and a lack of investor confidence could also hamper any chance of a swift recovery, with changes to energy sector laws of particular concern to many foreign and private companies operating in that sector.
United States Ambassador Christopher Landau said last month that it’s not a good time to invest in Mexico, while Gabriela Siller, head of economic and financial research at Banco Base, said there is a “nearly 90%” chance that the country’s sovereign rating will be downgraded below investment grade by the end of 2020 or early next year.
For journalist Arvide, a hug—and a job—from the president.
In January, a journalist asked President López Obrador to consider spending government advertising funds with online-only publications such as the Mexican military blog she publishes.
On Tuesday, María Isabel Arvide Limón was named as Mexico’s new consul in Istanbul, Turkey, triggering a barrage of criticism because she has no diplomatic experience.
Exactly how Arvide went from asking the government for advertising money to being appointed by the president to an overseas consul role is unclear, but some people claim she was given the job because she is close to López Obrador.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), which announced her appointment, noted that Arvide has more than 40 years’ experience as a journalist, columnist, analyst and media commentator on political and international issues.
According to the newspaper Reforma, the SRE began the paperwork to appoint Arvide to the diplomatic posting in Turkey’s most populous city the very same month that she asked the government to direct some cash to her military information and army blog.
On January 9, Arvide stood up at the president’s regular news conference and rebuked the federal government for spending advertising money with media outlets that are critical of it. She also questioned why the government was not advertising in online publications.
“Seventy percent of people get information from the internet but who receives official advertising [money] is a weekly magazine called Proceso that you said nobody reads,” Arvide told López Obrador.
“Those of us who have a website, who are on social media and here [at the National Palace] from dawn [to attend the president’s weekday news conference] don’t receive a cent,” she said.
Arvide also asked López Obrador for financial assistance at another press conference, Reforma reported, telling the president that she received no public funds during the administration of his predecessor.
Now, however, she will be on the government payroll while living abroad at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.
News of her appointment to the consul role triggered extensive criticism on social media.
“I want the Foreign Affairs Ministry or [Foreign Affairs Minister] Marcelo Ebrard to explain how a ‘journalist’ such as Isabel Arvide can obtain a consul position if she doesn’t have any diplomatic experience,” Twitter use Dafne Peña tweeted to her 26,000 followers.
Former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya pleaded innocent on Wednesday to a charge that he received multi-million-dollar bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
Appearing before the court for a second consecutive day via video link from a Mexico City hospital where he is receiving treatment for several health problems, Lozoya also reiterated that he is willing to cooperate with authorities in their investigation into corruption during the 2012-18 government led by former president Enrique Peña Nieto.
A federal prosecutor alleged that Lozoya, who headed up the state oil company between 2012 and 2016, received a total of US $10.5 million in bribes from Odebrecht, which has admitted to paying kickbacks in Mexico.
The prosecutor alleged that the former Pemex CEO received a $4-million payment from Odebrecht’s former Mexico director, Luis Alberto de Meneses Weyll, when he was part of Peña Nieto’s 2012 campaign team.
The prosecutor charged that Lozoya met “constantly” with de Meneses and told him that if Peña Nieto won the election, he would be in a position to award infrastructure contracts to Odebrecht.
Odebrecht was subsequently awarded a lucrative contract to complete work on a Pemex refinery in Hidalgo as well as contracts for other infrastructure projects in Veracruz and Tamaulipas.
While Lozoya was Pemex CEO, he received an additional $6.5 million in bribe payments, the prosecutor alleged.
Almost $1.4 million was allegedly transferred to a bank account held by Lozoya’s mother, Gilda Austin de Lozoya, and used to purchase a home in the resort city of Ixtapa, Guerrero. Other funds were allegedly held in secret bank accounts including one in Germany.
The prosecutor also alleged that Lozoya introduced Odebrecht executives to Mexican business owners with a view to them forming partnerships to complete work on government projects.
At today’s hearing, the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) formally accused the former Pemex official of involvement in bribery, conducting operations with resources of illicit origin and criminal association.
Lozoya rejected the allegations and said he would denounce those responsible for the crimes.
The Ixtapa home allegedly purchased with bribe money deposited to an account held by Lozoya’s mother, Gilda Austin.
He reportedly told the FGR before his extradition to Mexico from Spain two weeks ago that the $4-million payment was used to pay foreign consultants that advised Peña Nieto’s campaign and that part of the $6-million payment was used to bribe lawmakers to ensure support for the former government’s energy reform.
Lozoya told the court today that his intention is to collaborate with federal authorities in exchange for a possible reduction in any prison sentence he receives.
His declaration of innocence on Wednesday comes a day after he denied receiving a bribe in excess of $3 million from the president of Altos Hornos de México, a company from which Pemex purchased a rundown fertilizer plant in 2015 at an allegedly vastly inflated price.
“I will prove that I am not responsible for nor guilty of the crimes of which I am accused,” Lozoya said.
The presiding judge ordered him to stand trial on the charge. The FGR has also submitted an application to the court for Lozoya to stand trial on the Odebrecht bribery charges.
President López Obrador said Monday that Lozoya’s appearance in court was a “watershed” moment in his government’s crusade against corruption.
Lozoya was the second high-ranking member of the Peña Nieto government to be taken into custody on corruption charges after former cabinet minister Rosario Robles, who allegedly participated in the embezzlement scheme known as the “Master Fraud.”
Robles remains in preventative custody awaiting trial. Peña Nieto, who has vanished from public life since the end of his presidency in December 2018, does not currently face any charges.
