Pregnant tapir caught on video in Chiapas protected area

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July 6, 2018

The tapir caught on video in Chiapas. — The tapir seen in the Montes Azules biosphere reserve.

Two specimens of endangered species, a pregnant Baird’s tapir and a black-and-white hawk-eagle, have been sighted in the Montes Azules biosphere reserve in the Lacandon jungle of Chiapas.

The Natural Protected Areas Commission, or Conanp, reported that the female tapir was seen near the Tzendales River in video footage that showed the animal had been injured in one eye, probably in an attack by a predator.

Conanp did not estimate how far along the pregnancy was but the mammal’s gestation period is about 400 days.

For the first week of their lives, infant Baird’s tapirs are hidden in secluded locations while their mothers forage for food and return periodically to nurse them. Later, the young follow their mothers on feeding expeditions. At three weeks of age, they are able to swim.

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Weaning occurs after one year, and sexual maturity is usually reached six to 12 months later. Baird’s tapirs can live for over 30 years.

The species has been considered vulnerable since 1996, and is under threat from poachers and deforestation.

The hawk-eagle, meanwhile, is a bird of prey found throughout a large part of tropical America, from southern Mexico to northern Argentina.

It has been considered an endangered species by the Mexican government since 2010, but the International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified it as “a species of least concern.”

Conanp said the two sightings provide evidence that shows the Montes Azules reserve is in good health.

Conanp’s Conservation Program for Species at Risk (Procer) is responsible for biological monitoring and surveillance projects and programs. It also provides environmental education and awareness activities to inform communities of the importance of protecting endangered species.

In the Montes Azules reserve Conanp works with residents of the town of Reforma Agraria, in the municipality of Maqués de Comillas.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Captan tapir embarazada en Montes Azules, Chiapas

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The final count: López Obrador won with 30 million-plus votes

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César Hernández

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July 6, 2018

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AMLO won the most votes of any president in history. — López Obrador confirmed the winner.

Counting the ballots in Sunday’s presidential election is complete, the National Electoral Institute (INE) said yesterday and confirmed that the Together We Will Make History coalition’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador was the winner.

The electoral authority said just over 30 million Mexicans voted for López Obrador, representing 53.1% of the total votes cast.

It is the highest vote count of any president in Mexico’s history.

Ricardo Anaya Cortés of the National Action Party (PAN) and candidate of the For Mexico in Front coalition obtained 22.2%, or 12.6 million votes.

José Antonio Meade Kuribreña, candidate of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its Everyone for Mexico coalition, won fewer than 10 million votes, obtaining just over 16%.

The first independent candidate in a presidential race, Jaime “El Bronco” Rodríguez Calderón, obtained just over 5%, a total of 2.3 million votes.

The results will be formalized at an official ceremony of the executive secretariat of the INE following which it will then notify the federal electoral court. It will conduct a final count to conclude the process.

For the next four days political parties will be able to file complaints and challenge the results. Electoral authorities will have until September 6 to resolve any outstanding issues.

The official count of ballots in the election for the federal Chamber of Deputies will continue until tomorrow, to be followed by the official tally of the vote for senators.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Security collective applauds strategy removing military from the streets

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MND Staff

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July 6, 2018

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Future public security secretary Durazo.

A security collective made up of more than 300 organizations and individuals has applauded the incoming government’s plan to gradually withdraw the military from public security duties on the nation’s streets.

The #SeguridadSinGuerra (Security without War) collective also said that it is pleased that president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s proposed secretary of public security, Alfonso Durazo, has suggested that “training police [and] improving their socio-economic conditions” is a better path towards peace.

The proposed measures are in accordance with what “national and international organizations have recommended,” the group said.

In a television interview today, Durazo reiterated that the withdrawal process would be gradual and said that the new strategy would deliver results within three years.

“We can’t be naïve,” he added “because the only responsible way to withdraw the army from the streets is to train the [non-military] security forces.”

Durazo stressed that a key part of the strategy would be to put an end to the “vicious circle” of corruption that brings about more corruption as well as impunity and insecurity.

Although it praised the military withdrawal strategy, #SeguridadSinGuerra said that campaign promises to create a National Guard and to keep the Internal Security Law (LSI) — which formally authorizes the use of the military in domestic law enforcement — were cause for alarm.

“Independently of the possible resolutions of the Supreme Court about its constitutionality, the law doesn’t contribute to peace and its very existence threatens and inhibits the exercise of human rights as recent injunction rulings from the Supreme Court have indicated, and so its validity will continue to unnecessarily violate democratic order,” the collective said in a statement.

Durazo said the new government will wait for the Supreme Court’s definitive ruling before it decides what approach to take on the LSI but he stressed that whatever decision the court makes “we’re going to guarantee transparency, accountability and internal and external controls for all security forces.”

#SeguridadSinGuerra has spoken out on several occasions against the controversial LSI, which was passed last December, while international organizations have also warned that it increases the risk of human rights violations.

Mexico’s armed forces, including the army and navy, have previously been accused of forcibly disappearing civilians while carrying out public security duties and the United Nations said in May there are “strong indications” that federal security forces were responsible for the disappearance of 23 people, including at least five minors, in Tamaulipas between February and May.

In that case, it is suspected that the navy — which has long been considered the most professional and trustworthy of Mexico’s security forces — is responsible.

Former president Felipe Calderón launched Mexico’s war on drug cartels by sending the army into his home state of Michoacán shortly after he took office in December 2006 while current President Enrique Peña Nieto has also used the military for domestic public security purposes.

However, violent crime has only worsened.

More than 200,000 people have been murdered over the past 11 and a half years and 2017 was Mexico’s most violent year in at least two decades while this year is on track to be even worse.

#SeguridadSinGuerra added in its statement that the incoming government’s peace agenda must be backed by a coalition made up of a cross-section of society that includes victims of human rights violations.

It said López Obrador’s reconciliation process must build an agenda for peace with the participation of “the victims of our serious human rights crisis and those who accompany them, as well as academics, specialists and those who will form part of the new government and the next Congress.”

The collective also said the election results show that “the democratic mandate against corruption and impunity and in favor of justice and immediate peace-building has never been so clear.”

In addition, it said that all its members are willing to contribute to the peace-building process.

“We who form #SeguridadSinGuerra are fully ready to work with those who form the new government and with the elected lawmakers to overcome the [security] obstacles before December 1 and begin the most important process of ending the horror of more than 11 years of war.”

Durazo said the government will initiate a “comprehensive pacification project” that will include analyzing the possibility of an amnesty for some criminals, as López Obrador floated during the election campaign, although he stressed that it would ultimately be up to Congress to decide whether such a measure should be adopted.

Future interior secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero said this week that people who have committed high-impact crimes such as homicides, kidnappings and enforced disappearances would not be eligible for amnesty under any policy the new government might adopt.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp), Animal Político (sp)

24 killed, 49 injured in Tultepec fireworks explosions; state halts production

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Tony Richards

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July 6, 2018

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A fire truck that was destroyed yesterday in Tultepec.

There were 24 people killed in yesterday’s fireworks explosions in Tultepec, state of México, 22 of whom were emergency personnel and others who had arrived on the scene to provide assistance after the first blast at about 9:24am.

There were four explosions in total — three came in quick succession 20 minutes after the first.

“The firefighters thought there would be no more explosions, but the biggest was still to come . . .” said a fireworks maker at the scene.

Seventeen people were killed in the explosions; the other seven died later in hospital. Another 49 people were wounded.

The state interior secretary suspended all fireworks manufacturing and sales in Tultepec, known as the fireworks capital of Mexico, in preparation for an investigation.

Alejandro Ozuna Rivero said civilian and military authorities, Civil Protection, state police, justice personnel and other government representatives had gathered in the municipality to conduct a full inspection of permits and check for irregularities in the production of fireworks.

There are an estimated 1,300 artisanal fireworks makers in Tultepec, about half of which are believed to operate within private homes without authorization issued by the Secretariat of Defense.

One resident said yesterday that gunpowder and other materials are stored in homes illegally and under dangerous conditions. Many are stockpiling supplies in preparation for the high season for fireworks between September and December.

Yesterday’s tragedy was the second worst in Tultepec’s history. The local fireworks market was destroyed in a blast that killed 42 in December 2016.

The Mexican Pyrotechnics Institute says 39 people have died and 135 injured in 56 fireworks explosions in the past year and a half. A large number of those explosions occurred in fireworks workshops that operate illegally thanks to corruption, the newspaper El Universal reported.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)

Tragedia en Tultepec, Edomex

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Second stage of retaliatory tariffs on US products takes effect today

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MND Staff

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July 5, 2018

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Bourbon is one of the 91 products subject to new tariffs.

A second stage of retaliatory tariffs on a range of United States imports to Mexico took effect today, just over a month after the U.S. imposed duties on aluminum and steel.

The federal government has now introduced tariffs on 91 United States products and the duty on pork increased today from 10% to 20%.

Other products targeted include potatoes, whiskey, apples, cranberries, a variety of cheeses and some steel products with tariffs mainly ranging between 15% and 25%.

The first round of measures took effect on June 5, just four days after the United States lifted exemptions on Mexican metal imports.

The government has said that the tariffs will remain in place as long as the United States continues to tax Mexican steel and aluminum at rates of 25% and 10% respectively.

Mexico staggered the introduction of tariffs on pork in two stages so as not to affect supply and thus avoid sudden price changes in the domestic market, said Juan Carlos Anaya, the CEO of agricultural market consultancy firm GCMA.

Mexicans consume 2.11 million tonnes of pork annually, making it the second most popular meat in the country.

United States producers sold just over US $1.8 billion worth of pork to its southern neighbor last year to make up for the shortfall in domestic production.

U.S. pork accounted for 86% of all imports of the meat last year but following the introduction of the first stage of retaliatory measures, Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo said that Mexico would “surely” look to import more pork from Europe.

The first shipment of German pork since the tit-for-tat tariffs were imposed arrived in Mexico in the middle of last month.

United States President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on both Mexican and Canadian metal imports further escalated trade tensions that were already present due to differences on contentious issues related to the ongoing process to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rebuked the United States’ decision to move towards greater protectionism but both also reaffirmed their commitment to reaching a renewed NAFTA deal that benefits all three countries.

Trump, on the other hand, floated the idea that the U.S. could seek to strike separate deals with its two neighbors and he reiterated that idea during a telephone conversation Monday with president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

AMLO, as Mexico’s next president is best known, has not directly addressed Trump’s metal tariffs but has said repeatedly that he wants to avoid a trade war with the U.S. given its importance to Mexican consumers and exporters.

In a television interview after he spoke to Trump Monday, he said that the two countries “are not going to fight” and stressed that the United States is “our main economic-commercial partner.”

However, he has also said as recently as last week that Mexico “will never be a piñata for a foreign government.”

News website Politico said today that “it’s unlikely that Trump’s trade policy will go a long way toward harboring close ties with López Obrador.”

There has been little progress on NAFTA since the tariffs were introduced although both Guajardo and Canada’s chief negotiator, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, have charged that they are not directly related to the renegotiation talks.

The United States’ move to introduce the tariffs on Mexico and Canada was widely seen as a strategy to exert pressure on the two countries to agree to U.S. demands to reach a new NAFTA.

Former United States commerce secretary Carlos Gutierrez described the tariffs as being part of a “gun-to-the-head negotiating style” that actually made it more difficult to agree to a deal “without committing suicide domestically.”

But instead of caving in, Mexico proceeded to strategically select products on which to impose its own tariffs that, according to Guajardo, “don’t have an important impact on national consumption” and don’t “have an important impact on the topic on inflation.”

However, the products chosen “have implications in some districts where there’s important congressmen and senators,” Guajardo said last month.

For example, tariffs on cheese hit Wisconsin — the home state of House Speaker Paul Ryan — while those on steel hit producers in Vice-President Mike Pence’s home state of Indiana.

With mid-term elections coming up in the United States in November, Mexico hopes that by targeting states that are politically important to Trump, the U.S. president might be pressured into rethinking the wisdom of applying tariffs on a key market for American producers.

Jim Heimerl, president of the U.S. National Pork Producers Council, has already spoken out against the tariffs, charging that it eliminates his country’s ability to compete in the Mexican market.

American dairy producers have also said that they will be hurt because around 25% of all U.S. exports in the sector go to Mexico.

More than 50 dairy groups wrote to Trump last month to urge him to drop the tariffs, charging that they would only serve to benefit producers in the European Union, which reached a new trade agreement with Mexico in April.

In addition to imposing its own retaliatory tariffs, Mexico said last month that it would challenge the United States’ metal duties at the World Trade Organization on the grounds that they violate international trade rules.

Source: Vanguardia (sp), Politico (en)

Three reasons why it’s time for Mexico to pivot to China

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Antonio C. Hsiang

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July 5, 2018

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The Isthmus of Tehuantepec rail line is one that might interest China.

Since establishing diplomatic relations in 1972, Mexico and China have maintained a cordial political relationship.

However, economically the two countries have remained competitive for the last three decades. Consider that in 2001 Mexico was the last country to withdraw objections against China’s accession to the WTO.

Times have changed though. Recently, bilateral engagement between Beijing and Mexico City has become more complimentary.

In September 2017, President Enrique Peña Nieto held another round of bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the seventh such meeting since 2013, when both leaders agreed to declare the status of the Sino-Mexican relationship as a “comprehensive strategic partnership.”

With Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s landslide victory in the Mexican election on July 1, the Sino-Mexican partnership will almost certainly deepen further for three reasons.

First, Mexico may not feel that waiting for NAFTA is a winning economic strategy. As of May 17, United States House Speaker Paul Ryan’s informal deadline, NAFTA renegotiations were still in limbo. Worse, on June 1 the Trump administration delivered a gut punch to America’s closest allies, imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum from Europe, Mexico and Canada.

Four days later, Mexico retaliated with new tariffs on U.S. products. The list of taxed goods includes whiskey, cheese, steel, bourbon and pork. Canada has even been pushing the trans-mountain pipeline to sell oil directly to China.

“Mexico is realizing that it has been overexposed to the U.S., and it’s now trying to hedge its bets,” according to Kevin Gallagher, professor at Boston University. Currently, China is Mexico’s fourth-largest trading partner, accounting for US $6.7 billion of Mexico’s annual exports.

These numbers are far smaller than Mexico’s exports to the United States, which account for $372.4 billion of Mexico’s annual exports. Recognizing that Mexico is overly reliant on the U.S., there have already been moves towards deeper integration with China.

In early 2017, while the U.S. and Mexico were preparing for NAFTA renegotiations, billionaire Carlos Slim went ahead and established joint ventures with China’s JAC Motors, one of three automotive companies owned by the Chinese government with a presence in Mexico.

The Chinese have reciprocated as well. Last September, Xi Jinping called Mexico an “important pivot of the natural extension of Belt and Road construction in Latin America” and said both countries should synergize development strategies.

In fact, China invited Mexico as one of five nations to consider a “BRICS plus” arrangement, which would add new members of the global South to the now five-country grouping. López Obrador can easily jump on the bandwagon of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) should he want to more fully pivot towards Beijing and away from Washington.

Second, López Obrador can also take advantage of China’s patient capital, an important form of state-led capitalism and characterized by a longer-term horizon. Historically, Chinese efforts at major projects in Mexico have not been fruitful.

Beijing tried to champion a high-speed rail link to connect Mexico City and the city of Querétaro. However, President Enrique Peña Nieto was forced to scrap a contract awarded to a consortium led by China Railway Construction Corp. after an outcry over transparency.

With López Obrador, China may have another shot at a big project in Mexico. The new Mexican president has ambitions to revitalize a rail corridor across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are just 200 kilometers apart. In theory, this would serve as a Panama Canal-lite, opening up a short cut to the Atlantic.

The corridor would not only provide an alternative route — allowing cargo to avoid the Panama Canal, which is more than 2,000 kilometers to the south — but it would also give businesses a reason to locate in Mexico’s depressed south.

Such a project is expected to cost $7 billion in the first year alone and require a combination of public and private funding. “I can see us perfectly well approaching the Chinese, above all. It’s the type of project they will certainly want to invest in, because they are long-term infrastructure projects with clearly positive returns,” according to Gerardo Esquivel, a Harvard-trained economist and one of López Obrador’s economic advisers.

Third, López Obrador can get on Beijing’s good side by helping transform China’s image in Latin America. By investing in the “new Silk Road” trade corridors spanning 65 countries, Beijing is trying to move beyond its traditional focus on resource extraction.

Panama is a great example of a country where this is happening. Five months after China and Panama established official diplomatic relations, Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela Rodríguez visited Beijing in November of 2017. One of the most important agreements they concluded is the inclusion of Panama in the BRI.

Going forward, Panama will likely play a key part in China’s efforts in Latin America, with the Panama Canal and the country’s strong financial and logistics platforms giving China key infrastructure capabilities in the region.

Likewise, Mexico can help China to transform the traditional extractive model of investment into a more productive one. In fact, China has also already taken advantage of recent energy reform in Mexico, which opened the door to foreign investment in the industry.

The state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation plans to invest $8 billion in Mexico over the next 30 years, indicating that both countries want to move the relationship forward. Mexico can enhance its connectivity with Asia through projects such as the “Made in China 2025.”

Former Mexican foreign secretary Jorge Castañeda once characterized Mexico’s growing interest in China as an “expression of machismo” directed against the United States.

If President López Obrador really wants to show his “machismo,” then he should follow in the footsteps of Peru’s former president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who chose China as the first foreign country he visited.

Indeed, if López Obrador makes a strong move towards China, Beijing will most likely reward him no later than the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) meeting in 2019 to be held in Chengdu, capital of southwestern Sichuan province.

The writer is professor and director of the Center for Latin American Economy and Trade Studies at Chihlee University of Technology, Taiwan.

López Obrador proposes ex-Mexico City mayor as foreign affairs secretary

By

Tony Richards

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July 5, 2018

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Ebrard was mayor of the capital after López Obrador.

Another former mayor of Mexico City will be part of the new government when it is sworn in December 1.

President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced today that he would propose Marcelo Ebrard, who served as mayor between 2006 and 2012, as foreign affairs secretary. The appointment must be ratified by the Senate.

López Obrador, who was mayor of the capital between 2000 and 2005, had previously named Héctor Vasconcelos for the position but made the change after the latter was elected to the Senate.

He told a press conference today that Vasconcelos, a veteran diplomat, will seek to become president of the Senate foreign relations committee.

Ebrard worked on López Obrador’s campaign team and is now part of the transition team following Sunday’s election win.

López Obrador also said today he would invite United States President Donald Trump to his swearing-in ceremony on December 1. Other chiefs of state will also be on the guest list, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Source: El Universal (sp), Milenio (sp)

Gas price changes subject only to inflation, says new finance secretary

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MND Staff

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July 5, 2018

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The incoming finance secretary, Carlos Urzúa.

There will be no “abrupt movements” to gas prices, Mexico’s future finance secretary said yesterday, explaining that only inflation would create increased costs to motorists when filling up.

“We’re thinking about increasing the price each year by [the same amount as] inflation; in real terms it’s not going to increase but in nominal terms, it will . . .” Carlos Urzúa told the broadcaster Televisa.

“The gasoline price is controlled at the moment, it doesn’t seem to be, but it is, because what the federal government is doing is lowering and raising the IEPS excise tax . . . it’s the same that we would do,” he added.

The future secretary’s comments were likely aimed at allaying fears that there could be another so-called gasolinazo, as a steep fuel price increase is known.

A decision taken by the current federal government to increase fuel prices by between 15% and 20% in January last year triggered widespread protests.

Urzúa, who also served as finance secretary in Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Mexico City administration, also said that oil contracts already awarded to foreign and private companies would be honored by the next government as long as no irregularities are detected.

Mexico has held a series of auctions, made possible due to the 2013 energy reform, to sell off rights to explore for oil and gas.

Large energy multinationals and foreign state-owned petroleum companies have been among the buyers.

“If [the contract] looks good, it will go ahead. It’s a contract that we have to respect,” Urzúa said.

López Obrador has repeatedly said that he would review energy sector contracts already awarded and there have been fears in the private sector that, as president, he could move to cancel the reform, which also allowed foreign and private companies to enter the retail fuel market.

Urzúa predicted economic growth of 2.5% next year, an exchange rate with the US dollar of around 19 pesos and 4% to 5% inflation, adding that Mexican oil prices would likely be around US $70 per barrel.

Urzúa said that López Obrador will work to redistribute the budget in order to fulfill the promises he made on the campaign trail, such as increasing pensions for the elderly and offering more educational scholarships.

He also stressed that financial markets already factored in AMLO’s triumph months ago and said that once the new administration is sworn in, the process to update the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) could gather speed.

With regard to the new Mexico City International Airport project, Urzúa said that there were three possibilities, reiterating what López Obrador said last month.

One is for the existing Santa Lucía air force base in México state to be adapted for commercial use, a second option is for the project to continue as a public-private joint venture and a third possibility is that it could be auctioned to the private sector.

López Obrador told supporters at a rally in Texcoco two weeks before the election that ultimately it would be up to the people to decide the airport’s fate and floated the idea of a public consultation that could take the form of a plebiscite.

He has previously declared that he would scrap the project, charging that it is corrupt, too expensive, not needed and being built on ground that is sinking.

For the 2019 federal budget, Urzúa said, the incoming administration will end some government programs and implement new ones and cut payroll expenses by eliminating private medical insurance and life insurance policies for officials.

Source: El Economista (sp), Notimex (sp)

Ex-governor’s properties seized in historic zone of Parral, Chihuahua

By

César Hernández

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July 5, 2018

0

ne of the houses seized in Parral. — One of the houses owned by ex-governor Duarte.

The Chihuahua Attorney General’s office has seized five of former governor César Duarte Jáquez’s properties in the historic center of the city of Parral.

One of the houses is located some 50 meters from the site of the assassination of Francisco “Pancho” Villa, a general in the 1910 Mexican Revolution.

The five houses have been abandoned for 20 years or more. Neighbors told the newspaper El Universal that the former governor planned to take advantage of the economic spillover created by visitors to the area by opening a commercial center.

Every year on July 20 thousands of tourists gather on the street to witness a reenactment of Villa’s assassination, which took place on that spot and date in 1923.

Duarte had also planned to build what was to be the tallest equestrian statue in the world.

The monument was to be dedicated to Pancho Villa but federal authorities ordered the suspension of the work two years ago because the governor had ordered the demolition of a 19th-century heritage home.

Duarte was the governor of Chihuahua between 2010 and 2016 and is currently a fugitive, facing charges of corruption. Investigations into his alleged wrongdoings have resulted in the confiscation of close to 28 properties in his name.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Election institute will consider 197-million-peso fine against Morena

By

MND Staff

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July 5, 2018

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López Obrador announced the creation of the trust last September.

The party led by president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador could be issued with a 197-million-peso fine for violating campaign finance rules, the National Electoral Institute (INE) said yesterday.

The announcement came just three days after López Obrador won Sunday’s presidential election in a landslide.

According to the INE, the National Regeneration Movement, Morena for short, created a trust in which it deposited around 78.8 million pesos (US $4.1 million), mainly in cash but also through checks and bank transfers. But the trust was not officially reported.

“The party actively participated in forming this financial instrument to collect resources as a financing method contrary to the rules,” the INE said in a statement.

The institute will vote whether to impose the fine, which is equivalent to almost US $10.3 million, on July 18.

If the penalty is enforced, it will be the largest related to campaign financing in the recently-concluded electoral process.

The INE said that the possible imposition of the fine was based on omissions in Morena’s fiscal reports and because the party had exceeded established limits for cash donations and received funds from undisclosed persons and prohibited entities.

Two sources with knowledge of the matter told the news agency Reuters that the trust under investigation was called “For the Others” and was set up by Morena to help victims of last September’s two devastating earthquakes.

The INE — which began its investigation after the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) filed a complaint against Morena for not reporting the fund — said that around 64.4 million pesos (US $3.35 million) were withdrawn from the trust and distributed to party members via checks that were later cashed and used to finance the campaigns of Morena candidates.

The coalition the party heads also won a majority in both houses of federal Congress and the governorships of five states in Sunday’s elections.

In response to the announcement of the INE investigation, López Obrador today rejected that the trust had been used improperly.

“No, not at all,” the president-elect said, adding that the matter would “go to court because [the allegation] has no foundation.”

The 64-year-old leftist political veteran made ending corruption the central tenet of his pitch to the electorate, meaning that even a whiff of wrongdoing has the potential to trigger claims of hypocrisy from critics.

During a visit to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region of Oaxaca, which bore the brunt of the powerful September 7 earthquake, the then-candidate gave an assurance that half of the public funds authorized by the INE for campaign financing was being allocated to victims.

The size of the potential fine Morena could face almost matches the 207.5 million pesos it was allotted as part of record public funding approved by the INE last year for this year’s elections.

The electoral institute said it is also considering fining the PRI 36.5 million pesos (US $1.9 million) for deducting money from government employees in 2015 for the party’s treasury in Chihuahua, while the National Action Party (PAN) could be slapped with a 3-million-peso (US $156,000) penalty for accepting donations from prohibited entities in the lead-up last Sunday’s vote.

Source: Reuters (en), Milenio (sp)