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News > Latin America

Mexico: AMLO Party Fined For Giving Money To Earthquake Victims

  • President-Elect Lopez Obrador said Morena will appeal the decision because helping earthquake victims shouldn't constitute wrongdoing.

    President-Elect Lopez Obrador said Morena will appeal the decision because helping earthquake victims shouldn't constitute wrongdoing. | Photo: Reuters

Published 19 July 2018
Opinion

President-Elect Lopez Obrador said Morena will appeal the decision because using party funds to help victims of a natural disaster shouldn't constitute any wrongdoing.

Mexico's electoral authorities are fining Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's National Renewal Movement (Morena) party for diverting money into a fund intended to help victims of last year's devastating earthquakes.

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Mexico's Ruling Party Fined for Diverting State Funds

Lopez Obrador, commonly known as AMLO, said they would appeal the decision because using party funds to help victims of a natural disaster shouldn't constitute any wrongdoing.

"The US$10,335,605 [197 million Mexican pesos] fine imposed by the INE [National Electoral Institute] on Morena is a blatant revenge," AMLO posted on Twitter.

"There is no immoral act in the trust fund for the earthquake victims. We are not corrupt nor committed any illegal act. On the contrary, they're trying to cover in mud a humanitarian action. We will go to court."

The INE said Morena used trust fund 'For the Others,' intended to aid the thousands of Mexicans who lost their homes in the September 2017 earthquakes that shook the center and south of Mexico, as a "parallel source of financing" for the party.

The fund was not officially linked to the party, but it was promoted by its leaders and supporters. Also, the investigation showed that 80 percent of the fund ended up in the hands of its leaders.

The INE also accused Morena of failing to inform electoral authorities; failing to report incomes and expenses; ignoring the established limit of cash contributions, and receiving money from unknown and illicit people for "electoral purposes."

INE Counselor Ciro Murayama said: "The parties are not charity organizations. Taking money or materials to people is considered a gift and that's prohibited by law."

Horacio Duarte, Morena's representative at the electoral authorities, accused the INE counselors of working on behalf of the ruling Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI).

"You won't have your powerful friends at the presidency anymore," Duarte told INE Counselor Marco Baños. "You're facing 30 million votes on July 1, we shut your mouths with 30 million."

Jose Roberto Ruiz was the only one out of 11 counselors who voted against the measure and accused his partners of working for the PRI and of intentionally harming Morena. In response, Baños accused him of acting in favor of Morena.

Electoral authorities report that the trust fund received 78.8 millon pesos (US$4,136,212), of which 44.4 million were cash deposits made by small groups of people at various banks.

Morena isn't the only party to be fined by the INE after the July 1 elections. It also announced a US$2 million fine against the ruling PRI for diverting state funds directly to the party.

"The INE is imposing a 36.5 million Mexican pesos (US$1,932,479) fine on the PRI for the unlawful withholding of a fraction of the salary of state workers by Chihuahua's Treasury Department, to later transfer them to the party on a monthly basis," the INE said in a statement.

The right-wing National Action Party was also fined about US$153,800 (3 million pesos).

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