Videoscandals
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The Videoscandals were political scandals in Mexico in 2004 when videos of prominent politicians taken with hidden cameras were made public. The majority of them involve close collaborators of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, then Mayor of Mexico City: his finance chief Gustavo Ponce and right-hand man René Bejarano; and notable figures from his party, the PRD, in corrupt dealings with former business man Carlos Ahumada. In 2006 the issue was refueled when Ahumada's wife, Cecilia Gurza, threatened to show more videos involving more López Obrador collaborators, and later suffered an attempt on her life.
The first video shown on national television was of the Green Party leader (PVEM) being offered a two-million-dollar bribe to give a construction permit in an ecologically protected area. He was taped by one of his own party members, who introduced to him the businessman interested in the project. The three met in the PVEM headquarters. Both sides claimed they weren't serious about the bribe, but were testing each other. This video was quickly forgotten when the PRD videos were shown.
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[edit] 2004 PRD videos
Most of these videos were taped by entrepreneur Carlos Ahumada, who set up an elaborate hidden camera studio in his offices. He claims he taped the meetings to protect himself from future extortion attempts by PRD members. It was Rosario Robles who introduced Ahumada to her fellow party members. The videos are listed in order of chronological appearance on television.
[edit] Gustavo Ponce
In the first video López Obrador's finance chief, Gustavo Ponce, was filmed gambling at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. He had made 37 similar trips in the last year, his hotel bills revealing huge tips and mini-bar room charges.
López Obrador reacted slowly and unconvincingly: having received a phone call warning him of an impending scandal, he watched Ponce's gambling on the nightly news. He immediately called Ponce by telephone, Ponce reassured López Obrador it was only a confusion and he would explain it to the press the following morning. López Obrador arrived the next day for his morning conference and waited for Ponce to go together to meet the press; when it was obvious Ponce had fled he signed Ponce's leave in his absence. Ponce disappeared, amid heavy criticism of the Federal District government for not placing him in custody immediately. At first López Obrador did not judge Ponce, only saying Ponce owed an explanation for his behavior.
After several weeks López Obrador said that the scandal was part of a conspiracy by his political enemies, as it is incredibly hard to obtain a video from the closed circuit of a casino without an authorization or to obtain guests' bills, considering that the videotapes seemed to be from the security closed circuit[1]. After some time he expressed concern that Ponce had been killed so the truth about the scandal would never come to light. When Ponce was caught hiding in Mexico several months later, he expressed his relief at knowing he was still alive. Some time after his capture, and remembering his conspiracy theory, López Obrador presented to the press confidential documents of the United States Treasury Department detailing an ongoing investigation of Ponce for possible financial crimes. These documents, obtained from the Mexican government by Federal District Attorney General Bernardo Bátiz Vázquez showed, in López Obrador's eyes, a conspiracy by the federal government against him, since they knew before the scandal broke that Ponce was corrupt. Both the Mexican and United States government reacted harshly to this violation of the cooperation agreement among the policies of both countries.
[edit] René Bejarano
The second scandal came when René Bejarano, previously López Obrador's personal secretary, later elected to the Mexico City legislature, was videotaped accepting USD $45,000 in cash. The video was played on March 3, 2004 at Victor Trujillo's news program (which he hosted as his Brozo character), followed by an in-studio interview with a completely unsuspecting Bejarano. Bejarano claimed that the money, which was given to him by Carlos Ahumada Kurtz, an Argentine newspaper owner and city contractor, was a cash contribution for the political campaign of Leticia Robles (unrelated to Rosario Robles), a city borough mayor. Robles denied involvement in any illegal campaign financing. In this case, too, López Obrador failed to quickly distance himself from the scandal, placing the blame on a conspiracy by Carlos Ahumada and his political opponents (like ex-president Carlos Salinas), remaining silent about Bejarano. As more videotapes were released, AMLO found it difficult to not say anything about Bejarano's involvement and after a few months he declared he had done something inappropriate. Carlos Ahumada, who fled to Cuba to avoid prosecution, was captured by the Cuban government and held in custody, isolated, for some weeks before being deported to Mexico. Ahumada says he videotaped the encounters for his own safety as he felt threatened by Bejarano's cash requests, and released them as a desperate measure when his contracts with the city government were cancelled. He also gave money to PRD's Carlos Ímaz, another borough mayor, who was introduced to Ahumada by Rosario Robles, AMLO's predecessor. Carlos Ahumada was imprisoned in one of Mexico City's prisons, in complete isolation; media requests to interview him have been denied. About a year later, in April 2005, when the possibility of Ahumada being found innocent of all charges and released in the following months became real, AMLO's government pressed a new charge, low quality work in one of Ahumada's contracts. This charge, a civil offense that can't be punished by prison time, will keep Ahumada in jail for one or two more years, since the attorney general refused to receive evidence in his favor in the early stages of this new process, which would have allowed Ahumada to be processed outside jail.
Bejarano was controversially freed on bail on 2005; Carlos Imaz was found guilty and fined. Ahumada and Ponce remain in custody, Ahumada has been held in complete isolation since he was jailed.
[edit] Aftermath
The PVEM video was quickly forgotten after the PRD videos where shown, so Jorge Emilio Gonzalez was never seriously questioned. Some sources used it as a comic relief and MTV gave it an award. The language used on it was deeply criticized by the Mexican society due to the fact that a political leader was shown using slang terms like 'chamaqueando' ('don't make a fool of me').
The timing of the "videoscandals" was closely linked to that of the Desafuero scandal involving Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and so media coverage permitted a "Media Framing" event that related the Mexico City government to the corruption cases of the protagonists of the videos. This created a polarization of public opinion in which many feel that Lopez Obrador is responsible of corruption. In a visit to the ITESM, the politician gave a conference and talked about cleanliness and lack of corruption in his government, and the students laughed at him and shouted the name of videoscandal protagonists. During the elections PAN Presidential candidate, and now President of Mexico Felipe Calderón, compared himself to López Obrador based on the videoscandals.
However, there has been no evidence that directly links Mr. Lopez Obrador to the protagonists of the scandals. The officials of the Government of Mexico City has stated that the public servants involved participated independently, and they were judicially accused, and in some cases, indicted.
The PRD also removed party affiliation to those PRD-militants who where involved.
Politician René Bejarano and businessman Carlos Ahumada were jailed for the events. René Bejarano was controversially freed on bail and is following his process in liberty. Carlos Imaz was found guilty and fined. Ahumada and Ponce remain in custody.
[edit] 2006 Videoscandals
After PRD-controlled Mexico City government denied Ahumada, in custody without trial since 2004, his request to give a press conference, his wife, Cecilia Gurza, announced she would show new videos involving other prominent PRD officials. The videos would most notably show Horacio Duarte, who defended López Obrador in the Desafuero scandal and is now his political representative in the Federal Electoral Institute. The announcement was made on June 5, 2006. [1]
A day later, at 7:00 am (Mexico Central Time), Cecilia Gurza suffered a failed attempt on her life. She was travelling in a van along with her chauffer and her offspring when supposedly three individuals fired at her van and failed to assassinate her [2]. The motive is not clear, ¨but the incident has caused Ahumada's wife to delay indefinitely the showing of the videos [3], which were to be shown the same day [4], also the date of the second presidential candidate debates for the upcoming presidential elections.
Police (controlled by Mr Obrador's PRD) are still investigating the attempt, and no one has been accused or indicted. One line of investigation followed by city government is that the attack was staged, and at least one PRD official has advanced this view [5]. However, Carlos Ahumada has denied this version [6], and has propelled his wife to ask for the intervention of other authorities that are not the city government [7]. Federal Police (PGR) has declared the possibility of investigating the attempt [8]. The van in which Gurza was travelling suffered an accident while being transported by city police [9]. Mexico City police later reported discrepancies in the testimonies of Ahumada's wife and her driver, and discrepancies between their testimonies and the physical evidence.
Because the videos supposedly showed members of Mexico City government in compromising positions, Cecilia Gurza has asked that it not be Mexico City officials who investigate this matter.
Ahumada's wife has stated that she no longer has the videos she was going to publicise, since after the supposed attack, she sent them to her husband in prison, with a driver named "Alberto", whose last name she did not know. Prison visitation records show no visitors to her husband by that name [10].
