The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, this Monday during his morning conference. Sáshenka Gutiérrez (EFE)
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has distanced himself from the corruption investigation against his predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto.
The current president has affirmed this Monday that his government is not seeking to "persecute" the former president, but has defended the release of information on alleged transfers of 26 million pesos.
"We do not have relationships of complicity with anyone," he declared during his morning conference.
López Obrador has assured that Peña Nieto is not a target of his government.
As he has repeated on numerous occasions, the president is committed to looking "forward."
"Our approach is not to persecute anyone, that we look forward," he said.
"Revenge is not my forte."
Unlike other of his predecessors in office, such as Felipe Calderón or Vicente Fox, Peña Nieto has remained on the sidelines of the controversies and has not criticized the current administration.
Since he finished his mandate, the former president has lived in a luxury villa in Spain.
To defend the shelving of the past, López Obrador has referred to the consultation that he himself called to decide whether or not to open a trial to the former presidents, an action that has been branded as populist by jurists.
In the end, the consultation collected a majority of votes in favor of opening a trial, but the turnout was too low to be binding.
"We are no longer going to file complaints," he said.
However, López Obrador has defended this Monday his decision to make public the ongoing investigation against the former president.
“There was that precedent and when they ask me I cannot lie, nor can I hide anything”, he has said.
“When Pablo Gómez [head of the Financial Intelligence Unit] tells me that this investigation exists (...), I told them [to go] to the Prosecutor's Office.
To all.
Because we have to do it that way for reasons of principle.”
The Attorney General's Office is investigating Peña Nieto for receiving more than 26 million pesos, a little over a million dollars, through transfers from abroad between 2019 and 2021. The money came to an account of a relative in Mexico and , then it was deposited in another account in the name of Peña Nieto.
Pablo Gómez reported last week that the information had been delivered to the Prosecutor's Office.
Faced with Gómez's revelations, Peña Nieto broke his usual silence and promised to clarify the source of his income.
“I am certain that before the competent authorities I will be allowed to clarify any question about my assets and demonstrate its legality, within the legal procedures.
I express my confidence in the institutions for the prosecution and administration of Justice,” he said on Twitter.
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