Development: On 9 August a Mexican judge ordered the prosecution of Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz, the former governor of the northern state of Nuevo León (2009-2015) for the federally ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI).
Significance: Medina is to be prosecuted for the crime of dereliction of duty in relation to an investigation into the alleged bribery of state government officials by South Korean automaker Kia Motors. The case, which involves the suspected payment of M$3.6bn (US$195m) in bribes by Kia to Nuevo León state government officials in exchange for the approval of fiscal incentives for the firm, once again exposes the PRI to serious questions about its commitment to combat corruption within its ranks. It also poses questions for the federal government led by President Enrique Peña Nieto and it’s rolling out of the national anti-corruption system (SNA), which it claims will help to stamp out official corruption. And with Medina vowing to fight off the allegations in court, and Peña Nieto’s ‘inner circle’ once again being implicated in dubious activities, these questions are only bound to become more pointed in the near future.
- The order to prosecute Medina came during a court hearing held yesterday in which Medina sought to lift the order issued by the Nuevo León specialised anti-corruption prosecution office to freeze all the assets of the former governor and 11 of his aides as part of the ‘Operation Tornado’ investigation into alleged corruption in the Medina administration. Operation Tornado was launched by the new independent Nuevo León governor, Jaime ‘El Bronco’ Rodríguez Calderón, immediately after he assumed office in October. Rodríguez has long accused Medina and the PRI of corruption and vowed to prosecute his predecessor and all those responsible.
- Based on this, Medina sought to argue that the investigation and moves against him were politically motivated. But after a 12-hour hearing, Judge Jaime Garza Castañeda did not fully agree with Medina. While the judge did agree that there was no sufficient evidence directly linking Medina to the alleged wrongdoing (after he argued that he only signed the official documents presented by the prosecutors in support of their allegations as ‘a witness’ but that this did not imply his approval of their content), he said that Medina still had “responsibilities to answer” and he upheld the freezing of the assets (but rejected a request for Medina to be banned from leaving the country).
Looking Ahead: Medina has said that he will clear his name and that of the PRI in the courts. But the fact that he is not the first former PRI governor to face prosecution for corruption means that there is a lot scepticism about this. In addition, the recent allegations by British daily The Guardian that Peña Nieto’s wife, Angélica Rivera, regularly uses an apartment in the US owned by Grupo Pierdant, a local firm that is now bidding for state contracts, once again appears to weaken the president’s position as being committed to combating corruption.
