Mexico leader faces charge contractor rewarded him with mansion
Source: McClatchy News
Mexico leader faces charge contractor rewarded him with mansion
By Tim Johnson
McClatchy Foreign Staff
November 9, 2014 Updated 27 minutes ago
MEXICO CITY — A Mexican investigative team reported Sunday that President Enrique Pena Nieto and his actress wife possess a posh mansion built to their taste by a company that has grown fat with government contracts.
Pena Nieto has not reported the mansion, worth an estimated $7 million, on his official declaration of assets in the past two years, the team said. The allegation falls on Pena Nieto at a time when he faces lagging support and public outrage over an apparent massacre of 43 students. It may also test his image as a leader who claims to battle corruption and fight for the rule of law.
Known as Casa La Palma, the mansion was built by a subsidiary of Grupo Higa, which has earned hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts under Pena Nieto, according to investigative reporters at aristeguinoticias.com, a news portal led by Carmen Aristegui, a radio and television journalist.
The mansion has an underground parking garage, an elevator, seven bedrooms, marble floors and a special system of recessed mood lighting that changes colors. Two distinctive palm trees jut above its white exterior.
Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/11/09/4308871_mexico-leader-faces-charge-contractor.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
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From the original post:
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Mexico awarded a contract Nov. 3 to a Chinese-led consortium for a high-speed rail link between Mexico City and Queretaro, a center of the aerospace industry. China Railway Construction Corp., a mammoth concern that built up much of China’s high-speed rail system in the past decade, led a consortium that was sole bidder on the project, which has been valued at between $3.7 billion and $4.3 billion.
The award came before Pena Nieto headed Sunday to Beijing for a state visit and to attend a summit of leaders in the Asia Pacific region.
But in a stunning move certain to put in jeopardy Mexico’s relations with China, Pena Nieto’s government rescinded the bid late Thursday, reacting to claims by opposition National Action Party legislators that the bid was rigged to favor the Chinese-led consortium. Authorities said the bidding would be reopened for six months to allow more companies to take part.
One of the members of the Chinese-led consortium is Constructora Teya, a Mexican company owned and controlled by Grupo Higa.
Had the bid stood, it would have been the latest stroke of fortune for Grupo Higa that began when Pena Nieto, a telegenic politician who many saw as the new face of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, took the reins as governor of the state of Mexico from 2005 to 2011. The state wraps around much of the capital.
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"Mr. Telegenic" as all the "news" sources have repeated endlessly.
Yes, it's "Mexico's "telegenic" Presidente, Enrique "Telegenic" Pena Nieto.
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I'll have to admit I actually had some hopes for Mr. Pena Nieto: he seemed like a real step up from Felipe Calderon, whom, btw, might just have basically stolen the 2006 elections if the PRD's allegations are correct.....but now I'm not so sure. Guess I shouldn't have expected so much from a PRI candidate. 
Pena nieto before that was in charge of police that shot down a bunch of unarmed, protesting farmers. This is a pri state and the streets, etc. shows it. He is well hated here as is pri, but they steal the elections by giving trinkets for votes.
Here they can place the votes of people by having a copy of their "voting card". Pri went around with fancy vans promising assistance to those that got "assistance" cards. The card cost a copy of their "voting card" and nothing came of it after elected. They gave out packpacks full of trinkets and cards to buy 500 pesos worth of food for votes. The cards turned out to be 250 pesos. Yes, I know it's the fault of the people that sell out also, but there are a lot of people hurting here. Here where we live they painted houses free for votes. Nobody in our family sold out, many here did.
The media here, televisa and azteca, both support pri and the media reflects it. The unions support pri and it was union members doing the footwork trading stuff for votes. The businesses support pri. It's stacked.
This election WAS stacked. It came out that the big shots at AMLO were secretly helping pri. Amlo sold out. Pan, which is typically considered the party of the people here, ran a female. I know it sounds bad me saying it, but the reality is mexico is not ready by any means for a mexican president. That's only because of people not voting for here, I personally know of people that would not vote for her. I would, that's not a problem with me. Most think amlo and pan both threw the election, were bought off. They think pan ran a female to throw it. Again, I am not in any way against a female but mexico is still very sexist. Many women lose their jobs when they get into their 30's and it's legal.
To also hit on them buying votes it's very easy here. It's illegal to buy votes, but it's very legal to give away stuff..It gets investigated, but never proven that the stuff was given for votes.
Journalism has become a partisan practice, especially here in mexico. I agree, the human race surely cannot take much more.
Thank you so much for posting this stuff, you are a treasure.
