SUMMARY – MORNING PRESIDENTIAL PRESS CONFERENCE – FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Highlights of this morning's presidential press conference include: AMLO hailed the decision of Mexico's anti-monopoly regulatory agency to approve the government's purchase of 13 electricity generating plants from the Spanish company Iberdrola; the head of the Financial Intelligence Unit, Pablo Gómez, reported on the progress of the government's civil suit in the United States against Genaro García Luna seeking the return of US$634 million that the former Minister of Public Security took out of the country; Gomez also reported on suspected fraud in the previous administration's purchase of Pegasus software used for domestic espionage.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador anticipated that the country will do much better in the future, because his administration has laid the foundations so that corruption, classism, racism, and the humiliation of the people will not return.

President López Obrador hailed the decision by the Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece) to authorize the purchase of 13 electricity generation plants by the Mexican government from the Spanish company Iberdrola. However, it imposed conditions, which if not met, will mean fines and sanctions. «I didn’t even expect them to approve it, but it was a step forward,” he said. This acquisition will enable the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) to have the capacity to produce 60% of the energy consumed in the country.

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The head of the Financial Intelligence Unit, Pablo Gómez, reported that the civil suit promoted by Mexico against Genaro García Luna, in Miami, Florida, to demand the return of US$634 million that the former Minister of Public Security took out of the country through tax havens, is in the conciliation stage, to be followed by the presentation of depositions. US$2 million have already been recovered. The UIF is investigating García Luna’s partners and associates during the Felipe Calderón presidential administration who operated bank accounts in Barbados.

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Pablo Gómez affirmed that the UIF has the evidence documenting that there was fraud in the purchase of the Pegasus software, used by previous administrations in domestic espionage.

During López Obrador’s administration, the Financial Intelligence Unit has filed 540 complaints with the Public Prosecutor’s Office; 115 of them for corruption committed by individuals and 53 by corporations.