Senators from Morena demand to investigate the actions and maneuvers of the lobbyists

Andrea Becerril

Newspaper La Jornada
Friday April 15, 2022, p. 4

Senators from Morena considered it necessary to investigate the actions of lobbyists, such as Paolo Salerno, who on behalf of national and foreign electricity companies seek to convince, by all means, the opposition to vote against the reform of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that recovers the stewardship of the State in the matter.

Senators Antares Vázquez, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia and José Narro, agreed, in separate interviews, that the Salerno case exposed the operation of characters who disguise themselves as advisers or academics and actually represent the interests of the electricity consortiums.

It is proven that in 2013, the Peña Nieto government distributed millions of pesos to PAN senators so that they would vote in favor of its energy reform to privatize Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). It would be necessary to verify if now it is the foreign companies that distribute millions of dollars so that the deputies do not approve the initiative of President López Obradorhighlighted Senator Vázquez.

It is clear that the national and foreign consortiums are desperate because with this reform that is now being discussed in San Lázaro they are going to lose the illegal benefits that they were given and that allow them to obtain extraordinary profits, based on a subsidy that the CFE must give them.. Therefore, he added he, they don’t mind trying to bribe opposition legislators and leaders who try to sell their love dearlySenator Gómez Urrutia explained in turn.

The case of the Italian Palerno is the last strawcommented Senator Vázquez in turn. She noted that after he was discovered in a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, along with a PRD legislator, in a radio interview He assured that he does not charge for his advisory services to the PRD members, but he practically acknowledged that he was part of those who drafted Peña Nieto’s energy reform..

Without a doubt, he pointed out, there are other transnational lobbyists who they are on top of deputies from other parliamentary opposition groups, to guarantee their vote against the electricity reform. It is good that they are exhibited, so that public opinion and citizens know how betrayals against the country are constructed.

What a shame, added Senator José Narro, that there are deputies who are on the side of the illegalities of the electricity companies, mostly foreign, and against national interests.