Ignacio Ovalle, now 77 years old, a character product of the old PRI -carried the portfolio of Luis Echeverria while he was entangled in the massacre of students in 1968 -, is at the center of a gigantic corruption scandal in the Mexican Food System (Segalmex) that exhibits its fingerprints on protected and possible lenders.
Initially launched by the Public Function Secretary, investigations into these mismanagements foundered due to lack of solidity, which attracted protection from figures involved. One of the defendants had already died when he was pointed out.
The General Prosecutor of the Republic It has now requested arrest warrants from judges against 22 people, some of whom have already been arrested for only one of the cases denounced to date: irregular payments for sugar purchases. The Prosecutor’s Office seems to be dragging its feet before additional accusations that implicate an additional list of former officials.
Ovalle Fernández endowed the now president with the public office -attention to indigenous groups in Tabasco, between 1977 and 1982- with which López Obrador began to write his own legend as a defender of the poor and the unprotected. And in 1983, when he was thrown out of the leadership of the state PRI, Ovalle himself rescued him from unemployment and got him a job in the city of Mexico. Perhaps he is the same man who fueled the Tabasco’s dreams of Havana, where he was ambassador at the end of the 1980s, a time when his friend and confidant liked to visit the island frequently.
The Ovalle debacle seems like a dart to the heart of Lopez Obrador. Hence, after being dismissed in 2022 at Segalmex, he was welcomed into the Ministry of the Interior under Adán Augusto López, where he was assigned the position of coordinator of the National Institute for Federalism and Municipal Development.
Curiously, he returned to the office where he began his public career, since he was head of the Sellers Office, between 1966 and 1968. Echeverría Álvarez was in charge of the Interior. In that fateful 1968, Ovalle became his private secretary, a position that he actually held for a decade.
It is possible that the history of the close proximity of oval with López Obrador, explain the erratic nature of the investigations into what happened in Segalmex, where official reports allude to a fraud that initially reaches 15,000 million pesos, almost double what was documented around the call Master swindler that marked the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) with acid. This case is easy to explain: a company, “Servicios Integrales Carregin”, charged that figure for delivering 25 million tons of sugar…, which never happened.
The owners of that company are Fernando Zurita Mora and his son, Fernando Hiram Zurita Jiménez. According to the investigations, it is documented that oval ordered to pay for those services despite the fact that the contract was never fulfilled. Additional reports suggest that the company used “ghost” registration mechanisms to disguise the names of the true shareholders.
Just last week the president Lopez Obrador said during one of his morning conferences that Ovalle Fernández “confided” and “they deceived him.” He recommended (Ovalle), he said, to “pure PRI members with bad habits, accustomed to stealing…, he puts them in and they start doing business, buying milk, buying corn, paying high prices.”
Since August 2018, in the transition period towards the new government, the creation of Segalmex, which merged the tasks of two giant government providers, Liconsa and Diconsa. And it was anticipated that Ovalle would be in front.
Interestingly, these companies were born after the extinction of conasupoa process that was entrusted to Ovalle himself in 1988 at the start of the administration of Carlos Salinas de Gortari.
In April 2022 Ovalle left the management of Segalmex, already involved in a wave of corruption scandals. In September of that same year, the organization Mexicans against Corruption and Impunity began to generate specific reports on payments for the allegedly fraudulent purchase of sugar.
Two central figures in the history of Segalmex stand out for appearing elusive in the face of the law. One of them is Manuel Lozano Jiménez, former commercial director of Liconsa, at the center of charges that include members of his family. And René Gaviria Segreste, head of Administration and Finance, both indicated in irregular purchases, including powdered milk, mentioned by Lopez Obrador.
We recommend you read:
#SegalmexOvalle #Dart #heart #AMLO