The National Electoral Institute (INE), refused to sanction Morena and Pío Lorenzo López Obrador, brother of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, for the possible reception of prohibited contributions, following a 2020 video in which he is observed receiving cash by David León Romero, former civil protection; The NE argued the lack of collaboration of the authorities to collect financial evidence.
The closure of this case is given five years that a video was disseminated in which Pío Lorenzo López, brother of the ex -president and David León Romero, is observed, who at the time of the recording served as a political operator of the Chiapas government headed by Manuel Velasco, receiving yellow envelopes with money.
In the images, the Civil Protection of the López Obrador Government is also heard mentioning Pío López Obrador that the money he gives is, “for the issue of supporting them here in the movement here”, in addition to assuring him that he will have the exact date to collect the second million (million pesos), while expressing: “Let the degree know through your means that we are supporting them … support”.
Despite this evidence, this Thursday the General Council determined to close the complaint filed by the PAN Federico Doring Casar, who demanded a sanctioning administrative procedure against Morena, as well as Pío Lorenzo López Obrador and David León Romero, for illicit financing.
The above, by declaring the accusations as unfounded, since they failed to prove bank transfers or irregular financial flows.
It was detailed that to investigate this case, the Technical Unit of Inspection of the INE carried out multiple proceedings, requested information to the National Banking and Securities Commission, to the Financial Intelligence Unit, to the Morena Party itself, to the Superior Court of Justice of Mexico City, as well as to people direct Financial links.
However, the INE regretted that authorities such as the Superior Court of Justice of Mexico City refused to deliver requested information, which, the counselor Carla Humphrey warned, “represented an important obstacle to deepen certain lines of investigation.”
And it is that the counselor Carla Humphrey, president of the Supervisory Commission and in charge of this investigation, said that from the probative assessment, the investigation by the Technical Unit, as well as actions to verify the financial traceability in banking, accounting, prosecutors.
In addition to analyzing documentation, support and accounting records, he even added, after performing technical expert opinions to the audiovisual material to the denounced video, of “None of them was obtained a sufficient degree to prove the denounced conduct, there is no bank trace, there is no accounting record, there is no tax verification that allows to transform that indication into certainty on the origin, amount, destination and partisan character of the observed cash.
“Therefore, the behavior is not accredited and this again calls us the urgency of strengthening our inspection tools and the legal obligation of all authorities to provide information when this authority requests it in the field of inspection,” he said.
During the discussion of the case, the representative of the PAN before the INE, Víctor Hugo Sondón, accused that this video “is not anecdotes, it is about corruption in view of all; facts that were not only recorded, but recognized by the protagonists and admitted by the living president, who said it was to finance the movement.”
Therefore, he criticized that despite the fact that a “unbeaten contribution scheme, of doubtful origin and with political-electoral destination” was evidenced, the facts are not recognized.
