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By Chris Covert
A senator from the state of Veracruz has filed another complaint with the Procuradoria General Republica (PGR) over the MP $25 million (USD $1.9 million) in cash seized at a Mexico state airport last month.
Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) senator Juan Bueno Torio filed a complaint Thursday demanding the PGR investigate the origins of the money seized January 24th at Toluca, Mexico airport.
Bueno Torio's complaint is the second one filed by a PAN politician. PAN president Gustavo Madero Munoz filed a complaint with the PGR January 31st requesting an investigation into the origins of the money.
Two Veracruz state political operatives were caught by Policia Federal agents attempting to transport the money aboard a Veracruz state owned aircraft January 27th. The Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) governor of Veracruz state, Javier Duarte de Ochoa has protested from the start the money was intended for a private promotions company in Mexico to be used in three upcoming festivals. A contract was later produced by the company putatively receiving the cash showing an option for payment to be in cash.
However, since the two operatives, identified as Miguel Morales Robles and Said Sandoval Zepeda, were caught travelling on a Friday night, the explanation of a payment to be delivered on a Saturday doesn't track. Additionally, neither of the operatives were listed in the government directory of Veracruz state, which is a legal requirement.
Since the arrest, a standoff has developed between the Veracruz government which has requested return of the cash and the PGR which now has a second complaint demanding investigation into the origins of the cash.
PAN party operatives seem to be focussing on the nexus between the destination of the money, Mexico state,and its former governor frontrunning PRI presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto. Nieto has been the target of charges in the past in which he allegedly used public funds to help political campaigns in other states.
Mexico state is among the top five most heavily indebted states in Mexico, the same with Coahuila state ruled by another top PRI operative, disgraced PRI president Humberto Moreira Valdes, who oversaw an unprecedented run up in public debt -- the highest per capita in Mexico -- during his tenure as governor.
Moreira has also been charged by his political opponents with using part of the money to fund PRI political campaigns in 2010.
It was Madero Munoz piling on pressure along with other PAN politicians in Coahuila that eventually led Moreira to resign his post after only 10 months.
Governor Duarte de Ochoa has been charged in the past in Mexican press with being a part of a scheme of receive public monies from his predecessor, Governor Fidel Herrera Beltran, to aid in Duarte de Ochoa's run for governor of Veracruz in 2010.
Impeachment proceedings were implemented, it is said at the urging of president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, but ultimately too late to stop Duarte de Ochoa's election.
Durate de Ochoa has also been charged by a writer from Proceso leftist weekly, for hiring operatives to engage in "black propaganda" against his rival, PAN candidate Miguel Angel Yunes Linares. The funds allegedly used in that part of Duarte de Ochoa's campaign was routed through Argentine banks.
In Mexican elections, negative campaigning is illegal.