Toallagate

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Toallagate ("towelgate") was a scandal that occurred in Mexico in 2001 involving the cost of bathroom towels (4430 pesos, roughly 400 U.S. dollars) for Los Pinos, the official residence of the President of Mexico. The government of Vicente Fox (2000-2006) had committed itself to make all purchases transparent and when the list was published it immediately became the focus of public opinion, the press and the opposition in Mexico.

The scandal was named by the press as a combination of the word toalla, which is Spanish for towel, and the infamous Watergate scandal.

The main reason for the uproar that toallagate provoked was that during his presidential campaign, Fox constantly critiziced former governments for their spending excesses and — by any standard, but particularly by Mexican ones — 400 dollars is a very expensive towel.

The scandal concluded with the resignation of the acquisitions manager of the Los Pinos official residence.