The investigation into the gray house inhabited by José Ramón López Beltrán and his wife, Caroly Adams, published last January, unhinged the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador because it wrecked his austerity speech and that of the alleged attack on corruption, because this case involves his eldest son, explains Raúl Olmos.
In an interview, the author of that investigation published last January, recounts that there were threads to pull and pieces of the puzzle to place, as well as the way in which that journalistic work was built. That’s why he wrote the book “The Gray House. Everything that reveals the biggest construction scandal”edited by Grijalbo.
For the renowned journalist in the book it is fully documented that Baker Hughes, of which the owner of the house that the president’s son lived in was a senior manager, has been one of the favorite contractors of the six-year term of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
In the text, he points out that Baker Hughes has had a dream six-year term. Payments she has received from Pemex they have tripled during the government of López Obrador.
The book documents how the president’s austerity speech foundered; recounts the way in which the major international newspapers put the accent, not on the possible conflict of interest that the case exposed, but on how the Mexican president’s austerity speech did not correspond to the way in which his eldest son lives.
It also details how people from the current government have shown the way to investigate people close to the president, such as his private secretary, Alejandro Esquer Verdugo, and his daughter, Carmelina Esquer. Civil associations used for several years to raise money. The relations of Carolyn Adams, the president’s daughter-in-law, with businessmen benefited from doing business with Pemex in the current administration. The history of acts of corruption of Baker Hughes sanctioned and others under investigation. And the president’s onslaught against the reporters who conducted the investigation into this case, which has not ended.
—Why did you decide to make a book about the Gray House investigation, after having published the first part through the portal of Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity and Latinus?
—The case of La Casa Gris took us more than a year to investigate to find relevant news items. Once it was published, there were threads to pull, puzzle pieces to put together.
The publication of the report in Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity and Latinus led to coverage.
Reactions came from those involved, from the Baker Hughes company. Then came the referral in the Vidanta case, when it became known that the children of Daniel Chávez, owner of the Vidanta group, employed José Ramón and led to another case of possible conflict of interest.
There were other elements of the investigation that I was building and that I realized that they could give a unified structure where I could tell about the new findings.
There are two motivations for writing the book: to find new elements that revolved around the gray house and a way to explain how this research was built, to clear up doubts and suspicions that arose from the first publication.
In addition, it served to explain what derivations there were from the new findings, especially the furious reactions of the president pointing to Carlos Loret de Mola, who contributed to the dissemination of this work.
—From what is documented in this investigation, how is the narrative that he is an austere and incorruptible president?
—It is the investigation that unhinged the president of the republic, because it disrupted two of the central speeches of his government: his austerity policy and the attack on corruption, because it involved his family in some way.
At the time the report was published, it wrecked the president’s austerity speech.
When I compiled the way in which the international press took up the Gray House investigation, the attention of the big international media was not the possible conflict of interest of occupying a house that was owned by a Baker Hughes senior manager, but how That way of life of the eldest son of the president disrupted the austerity speech that the president of the republic had been giving since the campaign.
The austerity speech had not been made just for him and the officials. As the years passed, he began to extend it to the general public. In the morning conferences he exhorted the population to put aside that aspiration to have money.
He criticized the middle class, calling it aspirational, individualistic. She said that if they already had a pair of shoes, why else?
When he extends this discourse to the population, he also extends it to his family and seeing that his family does not lead by example, in the case of his son and daughter-in-law, undoubtedly disrupts this austerity discourse.
—And what about the speech that López Obrador is an incorruptible man?
—In Mexico we always link the mansions that politicians inhabit, even said by the president himself referring to Chico Ché, and his song “Who pompó?”, when referring to the residence of a politician, making the reference that politician equals corruption, looting and unaccountable enrichment.
When it becomes known how the eldest son of the president lives, both in the first house (the gray house) and the one he later occupied north of Houston, which is the one he currently lives in, suspicions arise as to how he came from living in an austere 70-square-meter apartment in the south of Mexico City makes the huge leap to living in a mansion.
Then the suspicion arises, and I am not affirming it, that it could have been the product of corruption.
—Are there elements that make one suspect possible acts of corruption?
—Yes, because the president’s daughter-in-law, the wife of the president’s eldest son, was associated with an old Pemex contractor who we now know has had Pemex interests during the current government, specifically in the Tula and Dos Bocas refineries, In addition, this partner has a business relationship in a company in which Baker Hughes has a shareholding.
When we published this clue, Carolyn Adams shared a tweet where she said that this partner is also her best friend and then José Ramón, in another tweet, makes reference to the fact that this partner is also a compadre of Carolyn Adams.
There are signs of a possible influence peddling and then you have to ask yourself: how did they obtain those contracts that are not public in which the partner of the president’s daughter-in-law participates?
—Are we facing the political use of institutions for private benefits, influence peddling, conflicts of interest or what?
—The president of Pemex Procurement International is Carmelina Esquer Camacho, daughter of Alejandro Esquer Verdugo, private secretary of the President of the Republic, who resides in Houston and the large contracts that Pemex signs with large multinationals such as Baker Hughes are signed by Pemex Procurement International .
During the investigation, first for the report and then for the book, we managed to obtain a copy of the contracts and the response from the Mexican government was that they cannot be shared, because they are from a Pemex agency abroad, which is governed by the laws of the United States.
That part is important to try to elucidate if there was a possible conflict of interest or influence peddling, because there are the keys to how the contracts with Baker Hughes were assigned.
At the time Baker Hughes said that they had nothing to do with the matter of the house, because the executive, owner of the house, did not have operations in Mexico, but was dedicated to serving the North American market, but they omitted to mention that a large Part of the Pemex contracts are signed in Houston, where the executive who owned the gray house did have interference.
—The case of the White House has already ended as a journalistic investigation? And is it over as a court case?
—An investigation is open in the Attorney General’s Office and two others in the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. We will have to wait for their resolutions. The story is not over yet.
—What was documented was that Baker Hughes’ business in Mexico increased during this six-year term, right?
“That is well documented in the book. We fell short in the first report, from January, because the contracts assigned to Baker Hughes are large and assigned after the eldest son of President López Obrador and his wife occupied the house.
It is fully documented that Baker Hughes has been one of this government’s favorite contractors.
– How has the story of Carolyn Adams, wife of the eldest son of President López Obrador been?
—She has been carrying out intense activity in the energy sector in Mexico and abroad for several years.
In Mexico, he has had many suspicions because he has had links with companies that have received concessions or benefits under the current government.
President López Obrador said in a conference, “the lady apparently has money.”
Apparently, in addition to money, she has many business ties and that is the focus of a chapter dedicated to her and her relationships with several businessmen who benefit from contracts in the current administration.
—Can the president distance himself from her? In the book they point out that they have even shared a notary public.
—I would say that it cannot be unchecked because he is the President of the Republic. He has said that the president always finds out about business between private companies and the government.
In that case it is unheard of that he is not aware of what is happening in his family circle.
diego.badillo@eleconomista.mx
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