Mexico City, Jan 16 (EFE).- The arrest in Spain of a former chairman of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has roiled the political scene in Mexico, where the main opposition parties demanded that President
Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration take legal action against the politician.
The center-right National Action Party, or PAN, insisted that the “full weight of the law” be brought to bear on
Humberto Moreira, who also was the governor of the northern state of Coahuila from 2005 and 2011, saying that Mexico has “a great opportunity to demonstrate that it can apply the law equally to all who have committed a crime, without party distinction.”
“It would be an unforgivable error if the ex-governor and former PRI chairman were to enjoy impunity in our country,” the PAN said in a statement.
The PAN said it would follow the case and denounce “any irregularity in the process” of bringing to justice an individual notorious “for having mired his state in more than 36 billion pesos (some $1.97 billion at the current exchange rate) in debt and enriched himself inexplicably.”
“Everything indicates that Moreira is untouchable in Mexico because there have been numerous complaints” yet no progress has been made in prosecuting him, the party said.
The center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, also expressed its approval of the arrest of the former governor, although it said it was regrettable that it was carried out by authorities in a foreign country.
It added that this “merely proves and reinforces the idea that the Institutional Revolutionary Party represents corruption and impunity.”
The PRI, for its part, said that for now it lacked “sufficient information to issue a definitive pronouncement” on the reports of Moreira’s arrest.
Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretariat issued its own statement saying it would monitor the case to ensure due process.
Moreira was jailed by order of Spain’s National Court, which is investigating the suspect on charges of laundering proceeds from drug trafficking, misappropriation of public funds, bribe-taking and criminal conspiracy.
Moreira was the PRI’s chairman between March and December 2011, but he stepped down amid allegations of an irregular large increase in Coahuila’s debt.
In 2013, it was reported that Moreira was living in
Sant Cugat del Vallesa, a town outside Barcelona.
The politician said he moved there after the murder of his son Jose Eduardo on Oct. 3, 2012, at the hands of suspected members of the Los Zetas drug cartel. EFE
msc/mc
Category: Daily Witness, National
