Under charges of conspiracy and influence peddling the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI in Spanish, filed a lawsuit with the Attorney General’s office against rival Mexicali Mayor candidate Gustavo Sánchez.
In a press conference, Congressman Héctor Ríos and special liaison with the National Committee Leobardo Alcalá said the lawsuit was filed Thursday.
Ríos said Sánchez, the National Action Party (PAN in Spanish) candidate, took advantage of his position as Assembly Leader to obtain a millionaire contract with the City of Mexicali, whose mayor belongs to the same party.
He detailed that, if convicted, Sánchez could be sentenced to between two and 13 years of prison.
Alcalá said he hopes the Attorney General’s office acts impartially in the matter.
PRI candidate Antonio Magaña said days before there was an “evident” conflict of interest in Sánchez case.
Ríos recalled the PAN candidate said he was not an associate with the firm Sánchez, Aguilar and Esquer when the contract was signed on March 10, 2014.
However, according to public records, Sánchez left the firm until four months later.
“Gustavo Sánchez is a liar and we are uncovering him,” Ríos said. “He took advantage of his assembly seat and PAN leader to get a contract with the City of Mexicali.”
Sánchez said his opponents manipulated and interpreted erroneously his property, fiscal and interests reports filed with the Citizen Observatory known in Spanish as ObserBC.
“There is nothing hidden. On the contrary, the income reported by Gustavo Sánchez has been filed with fiscal authorities,” the party said in a press release. “Since October 2014 Sánchez did not make any legal activity for the firm and just received pending payments for past trials that went through after he resigned.”
Sánchez said the lawsuit from his counterparts shows how worried the PRI is due to the lack of impact of their campaign and their candidate.
State’s corruption, poor services reported
Baja California residents responded to a poll made by a Mexican agency in which corruption and deficient public services were underlined.
The National Institute of Statistics and Geography, or INEGI in Spanish, released the results of a poll made among residents 18 and older living in 38,000 homes in cities of 100,000 inhabitants and more from Nov. 3 until Dec. 15 of 2015.
According to the results, made public days ago, Baja California is ninth nationwide with one of the highest rates of corruption victims for every 100,000 inhabitants.
The agency said 14,127 victims per 100,000 residents were reported in the state.
Regarding the total number of corruption cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the state was thirteenth with a rate of 24,351.
The agency also reported residents’ satisfaction with public services.
Baja California residents were thirteenth nationwide with 47.8 percent of satisfaction according to the National Poll of Governmental Quality and Impact.
State residents’ responses left Baja California second with the least satisfaction in potable water services, fifth with the worst street conditions, tenth in school class days and fourteenth in public transit services.
Private investment increases
Private investment in Baja California in the first three months of the year reached $481 million, an increase of 75 percent compared to the same period of last year.
Mexico’s Secretary of Economy said the state is second along the northern border and fifth nationwide.
This is also the highest prívate investment record for the state since 2010.
Transportation equipment, natural gas transportation, computers, communications, mettering and other equipment, electronics and paper were the subsectors in which prívate investment was made on.
The report says that two thirds of private investment during the first quarter of the year came from the United States and 14.1 from South Korea, while the rest was from Spain, Netherlands, Israel, Japan, Hong Kong and others.
