President López Obrador during his press conference on Friday.Presidencia de México / EFE
Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has reported this Saturday that it will terminate any contract that has been granted in this Administration to Felipa Obrador Olán, first cousin of the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The name of the relative of Morena's president became widely known this week after a journalistic investigation by Carlos Loret revealed that his company, Litoral Laboratorios Industriales, had been favored with two tenders.
After the scandal, Pemex recalls that López Obrador has been "categorical" in the sense that under no circumstances will the assignment of contracts to his relatives be allowed during his government.
The decision, justified by a statement, reveals the business history between Litoral Laboratorios Industriales and Pemex.
Felipa Obrador's company, founded in the State of Campeche in March 2006, has been a contractor for the parastatal for seven years.
Throughout the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, the businesswoman obtained three contracts for more than 40 million pesos (two million dollars at today's exchange rate).
The company considers that "there is the possibility that Litoral Laboratorios has provided its services together or in support" to other contractors.
Since López Obrador came to power in December 2018, Felipa Obrador's company participated in four international competitions.
In October 2019 she was the winner of a contract.
That same month, a Pemex official detected the name of the businesswoman in another tender and reported it directly to the director of the company, Octavio Romero, right-hand man of the Mexican president.
According to this Saturday's statement, Romero told López Obrador that his cousin was applying for the contracts.
This was in contradiction to one of the Executive's commitments, who in June 2019 said that no family member of his would receive contracts.
"In response to the presidential instruction, Felipa Obrador Olán was verbally warned that the contract would not be awarded and she was ordered not to continue intervening in the Pemex tenders," the document states.
However, the name of the company appeared in two more tenders that were already in progress.
One on November 12, where it was rejected.
And one more on November 21, where three contracts were awarded to a consortium of nine companies, including Litoral Laboratorios Industriales.
These contracts were revealed on Thursday by LatinUs, a journalistic project led by Loret de Mola.
On Friday, during his morning press conference, the president said he did not know the information revealed.
“That the investigation be done, that it be reported, but I do not recommend it to anyone.
There is no influentialism at all ”, he stated in the National Palace.
The oil company claims to be investigating "an omission" that allowed it to grant contracts to a company that clearly marked the name of the president's first cousin in the area of Manifestation of Links of Individuals, an area to identify conflicts of interest.
"Since yesterday (on December 4) instructions were issued to proceed with the termination of any contract in which the Litoral Laboratorios Industriales company participates directly or in conjunction with other companies," the statement said.