Odebrecht scandal in Mexico: the ex-boss of Pemex in prison

The ex-boss of the all-powerful Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex, Emilio Lozoya, was taken into custody on Wednesday November 3 for his alleged involvement in the scandal Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction giant who distributed bribes in exchange for markets in several Latin American countries.

Emilio Lozoya was arrested in Spain in 2020 and then extradited to Mexico in July of the same year.

He was released, but this measure was canceled by a judge at the request of the prosecution who feared another leak, said judicial sources.

Read alsoThe fall of Odebrecht, a giant of Brazilian capitalism

Aged 46, Emilio Lozoya led Pemex between 2012 and 2016, during the tenure of former president Enrique Peña Nieto, of whom he was a friend and close collaborator.

According to the prosecution, Emilio Lozoya acknowledged that $ 4.4 million disbursed by Odebrecht in Mexico financed the presidential campaign of Enrique Peña Nieto in 2012. The former head of Pemex has in the past assured that he had followed instructions from Enrique Peña Nieto, according to statements leaked to the press in August 2020 from a judicial source.

During Wednesday's hearing, Emilio Lozoya proclaimed his innocence.

The prosecution considered that he had

the obligations linked to his status as the main witness in the Obedrecht case, and requested preventive prison in the face of the

.

The prosecution has upheld the charges of criminal conspiracy and corruption against Emilio Lozoya, who faces up to 30 years in prison.

Read alsoCan the Odebrecht scandal destabilize Latin America?

At the beginning of October, Emilio Lozoya was seen in a luxurious Chinese restaurant in Lomas, a chic district of the capital.

The photo had caused anger in the media and on social networks.

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is a flagship of the country's economy - the 15th largest in the world - born out of the expropriation of American and British companies by President Lazaro Cardenas in 1938. The Odebrecht affair spills over to many Latin American countries , where investigations were opened locally in connection with Brazilian justice (Venezuela and Dominican Republic among others).