Mexico’s president linked to business controversy

Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto has been caught in a fresh storm over allegations that his personal residence is owned by a company linked to a Mexican member of the Chinese-led consortium that won a high-speed rail contract last week – only to be stripped of it days later.

The allegations, based on documents seen by the Financial Times and reported on the Aristegui Noticias news website as Mr Peña Nieto flew to China to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum, fuelled protests over the disappearance of 43 students arrested by police and now feared dead.

The president’s office said it was aware of the report about Mr Peña Nieto’s residence but had no immediate comment on the allegations. The government is under fire at home and abroad. Angry tweets about the presidential “White House” were added to an outpouring of indignation at the comment “enough, I’m tired”, (#Yamecanse), used by the attorney-general Jesús Murillo Karam to end a news conference on Friday.

The phrase was soon trending on Twitter in reference to the corruption and violence that protesters say the government is failing to halt. During a demonstration in Mexico City on Saturday night, a small group vandalised and set fire to a wooden door of the National Palace, the seat of government in the central square, or Zócalo.

The publication of documents apparently indicating that Mr Peña Nieto’s Mexico City mansion belongs to a firm owned by the head of Grupo Higa, a construction company considered close to the president, comes after the president scrapped the $3.6 billion high-speed rail contract last Thursday following an outcry over the bidding process.

Constructors Teya, a unit of Grupo Higa, was a member of the Chinese-led train consortium, and Higa won 8 billion pesos ($590 million) in public works contracts in the state of Mexico where Mr Peña Nieto served as governor from 2005-11. Grupo Higa could not be reached for comment.

The train contract and the scandal over the presidential mansion, valued at 86 million pesos, promised to overshadow Mr Peña Nieto’s trip as Beijing said it was “surprised” by the decision to cancel the contract. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2014