Videoscandals
Encyclopedia
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.
, 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.
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. The video and other evidence where given in confidence to the Mexican Federal Government by the US government. It is unclear how this video was leaked to the public.
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. 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.
, previously López Obrador's personal secretary, later elected to the Mexico City
legislature, was videotaped accepting USD $45,000 in cash. The video got to the hands of Congress member Federico Döring
who took it and had it shown on March 3, 2004 at Victor Trujillo
's news program (which he hosted as his Brozo character). Coincidentally, Bejarano was at a nearby studio of the same channel giving an unrelated interview for another show. After Trujillo's staff members spotted him, he was immediately invited for an interview at the Brozo program. An in-studio interview with a completely unsuspecting Bejarano followed and he was then shown a replay of the video. A stunned 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 while Ponce remained in custody; Ahumada was held in jail until May 2007.
The timing of the "videoscandals" was closely linked to that of the Desafuero scandal involving Andrés Manuel López Obrador
(AMLO), 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.
and is now his political representative in the Federal Electoral Institute
. The announcement was made on June 5, 2006. http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/139147.html
A day later, at 7:00 am (Mexico Central Time), Cecilia Gurza suffered a failed attempt on her life. She was traveling in a van along with her chauffeur and her children when three individuals fired at her van and failed to assassinate her http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353661.html. The motive is not clear, ¨but the incident has caused Ahumada's wife to delay indefinitely the showing of the videos http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353662.html, which were to be shown the same day http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353801.html, also the date of the second presidential candidate debates for the upcoming presidential elections
.
Police 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 http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353716.html. However, Carlos Ahumada has denied this version http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353677.html, and has propelled his wife to ask for the intervention of other authorities that are not the city government http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353688.html. Federal Police (PGR) has declared the possibility of investigating the attempt http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353702.html. The van in which Gurza was travelling suffered an accident while being transported by city police http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353732.html. 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 http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/139733.html.
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
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
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good...
, then Mayor of Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
: his finance chief Gustavo Ponce and right-hand man René Bejarano
René Bejarano
René Juvenal Bejarano Martínez is a Mexican politician and ex-legislator, better known for the 2004 videoscandals.He was a political economy professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in 1978 and was the first coordinator for the Movimiento Sindical de Trabajadores de la Educación in...
; and notable figures from his party, the PRD
Party of the Democratic Revolution
The Party of the Democratic Revolution is a democratic socialist party in Mexico and one of 2 Mexican affiliates of the Socialist International...
, 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
Ecologist Green Party of Mexico
The Ecologist Green Party of Mexico is one of the six political parties to have representation in the Mexican Congress. The party's congressional strength currently stands at 17 deputies and five senators .-Elections 2000:...
) 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
PRD
-Political parties:*Partido Renovador Democrático, a political party in Angola*Parti de Renouveau Démocratique, a political party in Benin*Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, a political party in the Dominican Republic...
videos were shown.
2004 PRD videos
Most of these videos were taped by entrepreneur Carlos AhumadaCarlos Ahumada
Carlos Agustín Ahumada Kurtz is a naturalized Mexican businessman owner of Grupo Quart, a newspaper and former owner of two football clubs in Mexico who was convicted for corruption-related crimes in Mexico City in 2004.Ahumada Kurtz moved to Mexico at the age of 11 on October 6, 1975 with his...
, 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
Rosario Robles
Rosario Robles Berlanga was a left-wing Mexican politician who was appointed substitute Head of Government of the Federal District when Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas resigned from the post to run for the presidency in 2000...
who introduced Ahumada to her fellow party members. The videos are listed in order of chronological appearance on television.
Gustavo Ponce
In the first video López Obrador's finance chief, Gustavo Ponce, was filmed gambling at the Bellagio HotelBellagio (hotel and casino)
Bellagio is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in the Paradise area of unincorporated Clark County, Nevada, USA and a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. It is owned by MGM Resorts International and was built on the site of the demolished Dunes hotel and casino.Inspired by the...
in Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He had made 37 similar trips in the last year, his hotel bills revealing huge tips and mini-bar room charges. The video and other evidence where given in confidence to the Mexican Federal Government by the US government. It is unclear how this video was leaked to the public.
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
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
without an authorization or to obtain guests' bills, considering that the videotapes seemed to be from the security closed circuit. 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.
René Bejarano
The second scandal came when René BejaranoRené Bejarano
René Juvenal Bejarano Martínez is a Mexican politician and ex-legislator, better known for the 2004 videoscandals.He was a political economy professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in 1978 and was the first coordinator for the Movimiento Sindical de Trabajadores de la Educación in...
, previously López Obrador's personal secretary, later elected to the Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
legislature, was videotaped accepting USD $45,000 in cash. The video got to the hands of Congress member Federico Döring
Federico Döring
Federico Döring Casar , is a Mexican conservative politician from Mexico City affiliated to the National Action Party who currently serves in the upper house of the Mexican Congress.-Education:...
who took it and had it shown on March 3, 2004 at Victor Trujillo
Víctor Trujillo
Víctor Trujillo , is a Mexican host, comedian and political commentator. He is best known for his character Brozo el Payaso Tenebroso , a green-haired, unkempt, obscene and aggressive clown ....
's news program (which he hosted as his Brozo character). Coincidentally, Bejarano was at a nearby studio of the same channel giving an unrelated interview for another show. After Trujillo's staff members spotted him, he was immediately invited for an interview at the Brozo program. An in-studio interview with a completely unsuspecting Bejarano followed and he was then shown a replay of the video. A stunned Bejarano claimed that the money, which was given to him by Carlos Ahumada Kurtz, an Argentine
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
newspaper owner and city contractor, was a cash contribution for the political campaign of Leticia Robles (unrelated to Rosario Robles
Rosario Robles
Rosario Robles Berlanga was a left-wing Mexican politician who was appointed substitute Head of Government of the Federal District when Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas resigned from the post to run for the presidency in 2000...
), 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
Carlos Salinas
Carlos Salinas de Gortari is a Mexican economist and politician affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party who served as President of Mexico from 1988 to 1994. Earlier in his career he worked in the Budget Secretariat all the way up to Secretary...
), 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
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
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
Rosario Robles
Rosario Robles Berlanga was a left-wing Mexican politician who was appointed substitute Head of Government of the Federal District when Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas resigned from the post to run for the presidency in 2000...
, AMLO's predecessor.
Carlos Ahumada
Carlos Ahumada
Carlos Agustín Ahumada Kurtz is a naturalized Mexican businessman owner of Grupo Quart, a newspaper and former owner of two football clubs in Mexico who was convicted for corruption-related crimes in Mexico City in 2004.Ahumada Kurtz moved to Mexico at the age of 11 on October 6, 1975 with his...
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 while Ponce remained in custody; Ahumada was held in jail until May 2007.
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 because 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
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good...
(AMLO), 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
Felipe Calderón
Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012...
, 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.
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 scandalDesafuero
Desafuero process of Andrés Manuel López Obrador is one of the most famous desafuero processes in recent Mexican history took place during 2004 and 2005. This process was originated by a land owner who sued the Federal District's government on the grounds of improper expropriation of a patch of...
and is now his political representative in the Federal Electoral Institute
Federal Electoral Institute
The Federal Electoral Institute is an autonomous, public organization responsible for organizing federal elections in Mexico, that is, those related to the election of the President of the United Mexican States and to the election of the members of the Lower and Upper Chambers that constitute the ...
. The announcement was made on June 5, 2006. http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/139147.html
A day later, at 7:00 am (Mexico Central Time), Cecilia Gurza suffered a failed attempt on her life. She was traveling in a van along with her chauffeur and her children when three individuals fired at her van and failed to assassinate her http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353661.html. The motive is not clear, ¨but the incident has caused Ahumada's wife to delay indefinitely the showing of the videos http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353662.html, which were to be shown the same day http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353801.html, also the date of the second presidential candidate debates for the upcoming presidential elections
Mexican general election, 2006
A general election was held in Mexico on Sunday, July 2, 2006. Voters went to the polls to elect, on the federal level:*A new President of the Republic to serve a six-year term, replacing then Mexican President Vicente Fox .*500 members to serve for a...
.
Police 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 http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353716.html. However, Carlos Ahumada has denied this version http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353677.html, and has propelled his wife to ask for the intervention of other authorities that are not the city government http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353688.html. Federal Police (PGR) has declared the possibility of investigating the attempt http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353702.html. The van in which Gurza was travelling suffered an accident while being transported by city police http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/353732.html. 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 http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/139733.html.