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Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said this Monday that his sons “have no influence” in his government after the scandal of one of them, José Ramón López Beltrán, for his opulent life in Houston, Texas.
The President minimized the investigation that last Friday revealed that López Beltrán lived in Houston in a property owned by a senior executive of Baker Hughes, an oil company with current contracts for more than 151 million dollars with the Mexican Government.
“First of all, I would just like to say that my children have no influence in this Government, no contract is given to any recommended person,” he declared in his morning press conference.
Without denying the information, the President referred to the publication of Latinus and Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), which discovered that López Beltrán and his partner, Carolyn Adams, have occupied two residences north of Houston, each valued at close to 1 million dollars.
After living in the mansion of the executive of Baker Hughes, a contractor for Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), López Beltrán moved to a new residence in Harris County, which is in the name of his partner, Carolyn Adams, according to MCCI.
In addition, the president’s son would travel in a luxury car, valued at $68,675, in his wife’s name. “In the matter of the marriage, it is complicated to get involved, they got married and apparently the lady has money, but it has nothing to do with the government,” said President López Obrador on Monday.
The first residence that López Beltrán and Adams occupied, between 2019 and 2020, belonged to Keith L. Schilling, from Baker Hughes, who in August 2019 signed in Villahermosa, Tabasco, a Pemex contract for 85 million dollars, according to MCCI.
The President insisted that his children “have no influence,” did not deny the information, and instead criticized Latinus journalist Carlos Loret de Mola, whom he called “a mercenary.”
He also criticized journalist Carmen Aristegui, for comparing the scandal to the “White House” of Angélica Rivera, ex-wife of President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018).
“Neither a contract, nor a recommendation, we are not equal, but this Mr. Loret de Mola is a mercenary and made a scandal because he thinks we are equal. No. He was and continues to be at the service of the power mafia,” said AMLO, who argues that journalists are at the service of “power”, despite the fact that he occupies the Presidency.
