Officials from the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon announced a bold new initiative with the creation of an anti-corruption unit to investigate members of that state’s congress over bribery. One of the cases deals with the manufacturing plant for Korean car-maker KIA. A second investigation deals with a public relations firm tasked with raising the profile of former government officials.
The more than 110 cases under investigation deal with congressmen soliciting bribes from the mayors of rural towns and communities in exchange for public works funding, information released to Breitbart Texas by the Nuevo Leon government revealed.
“This unit will take this investigation and we will consider the origins in posterior cases,” said Vice-Attorney General for Nuevo Leon Ernesto Canales in a prepared statement in Spanish. “Of course including the removal of ‘fuero’ if the cases before us merit it.”
In Mexico, congressmen and senators are protected from prosecution by a “fuero” which is a legal term that grants immunity.
The bold move appears to be linked to campaign promises made by Governor Jaime “El Bronco” Rodriguez Calderon. During his campaign last year, Rodriguez promised to take on corrupt politicians and clean up the state government.
In the Public Works Secretariat, authorities are looking over 7,000 contracts where the bids were over charged. The over charges amount to more than $40 billion Pesos. All of the over charges took place during the term of former Governor Rodrigo Medina who was a member of Mexico’s ruling party the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the statement by Canales revealed.
As previously reported by Breitbart Texas, in other states, the PRI has been linked to mulitple cases of corruption including two former Tamaulipas governors who are fugitives of the U.S. Department of Justice for their links to Mexican drug cartels and money laundering.
Authorities are also looking at the government’s spending in Limon Publicistas which is a public relations firm that under Medina’s term was tasked with raising the profile of the former governor.
One of the other cases under the scope of investigation deals with a manufacturing plant for Korean car-maker KIA that the previous state administration was trying to attract. According to the information provided by the Nuevo Leon government, prosecutors are looking at the purchase of property, buildings and other concessions that were beyond the legal scope that the government could have legally provided.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.