Former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has been living in Spain for almost two years thanks to a golden visa or visa golden, a very exclusive permit reserved for large foreign investors. But before definitively obtaining authorization for the purchase of a commercial premises of more than half a million euros (10.5 million Mexican pesos), the former PRI president tried several ways to obtain his residence in Spain. The former president, who governed the country between 2012 and 2018, came to request a residence permit for exceptional cases, not provided for in the Immigration Regulations, for example, for patients or children of victims of gender violence. Spain, however, did not admit his application for processing “because it did not meet the requirements for it.”
The information is from the Secretary of State for Migration and responds to several questions raised by the deputy of the Basque nationalist formation of EH-Bildu Jon Iñarritu. Peña Nieto has opened several investigations since this summer by the Mexican Prosecutor’s Office (FGR) for irregular transfers from abroad, money laundering and illicit enrichment. The former Mexican president has lived for at least two years in a villa in a luxury urbanization on the outskirts of Madrid. The property of the chalet appears in the name of a construction company with interests in Mexico and Chile.
The failed request that Peña Nieto made, according to sources familiar with the case, is covered by the additional provision of the Regulations of the Immigration Law that allows the Administration to grant residence permits, without following the usual course, when there are exceptional circumstances of a nature. economic, labor or social that advise it. The Administration usually uses this figure to benefit profiles of very vulnerable foreigners, affected by cases of illness or violence. This formula is also the one that has been used to reward some heroic acts of immigrants in an irregular situation. In the case of Peña Nieto, the Administration considered that there were no exceptional circumstances that justified the former president skipping the usual channels.
After the refusal, Peña Nieto, advised by a prestigious law firm, decided to opt for the way in which large investors obtain their papers in Spain. Since 2013, the law has offered residence to anyone who buys real estate for more than half a million euros. This formula has been for all these years the fastest and most privileged way for dozens of Russian, Chinese or Venezuelan businessmen to settle in Spain. As revealed by Migrations in its response to the deputy, Peña Nieto acquired a commercial premises for 570,000 euros (11.4 million pesos). The exact figure had not been disclosed until now. With this formula, the Mexican obtained his papers in October 2020. After two years in force, the former president needs to renew his authorization to continue living in Spain legally.
The commercial premises with which Peña Nieto obtained his goldenvisa, notarized on September 18, 2020 and of which there is no mortgage, It has undergone a recent renovation and is now a 105 square meter “luxury apartment” located in the Chamberí neighbourhood, one of the most affluent in the Spanish capital. The property remains empty, according to the version of the residents of the property. As revealed by EL PAÍS, the former Mexican president put it up for sale in July. The real estate ad presents it as an “impressive newly renovated apartment”.
The offer was published on a real estate portal hours after the first investigation against it was announced. On July 7, the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) of Mexico announced that the FGR was following the trail of the former PRI president for allegedly collecting one million dollars (more than 26 million pesos) through a scheme of irregular transfers from the Foreign. In August, the Mexican Prosecutor’s Office announced a new battery of investigations against the former president for corruption. Peña Nieto is not the only member of the last PRI government in Mexico on whom the siege of Justice in his country is tightening. From Emilio Lozoya, the former director of the state oil company, Pemex, imprisoned last year; to the former secretary of development, Rosario Robles, on probation since the summer, the trail of high-ranking officials with causes for corruption is increasingly broad.
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