The ex-boss of the all-powerful Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex, Emilio Lozoya, was taken into custody on Wednesday (November 3) for his alleged involvement in the Odebrecht scandal, the Brazilian construction giant who distributed bribes wine in exchange for markets in several Latin American countries.
Mr. Lozoya was arrested in Spain in 2020 and then extradited to Mexico in July of the same year. He had been released, but this measure was overturned by a judge at the request of the prosecution, who feared another leak of Mr. Lozoya, said judicial sources.
Aged 46, Emilio Lozoya led Pemex between 2012 and 2016, during the tenure of former president Enrique Peña Nieto, with whom he was a friend and close collaborator. According to the prosecution, Mr. Lozoya acknowledged that 4.4 million dollars (3.8 million euros) disbursed by Odebrecht in Mexico financed the presidential campaign of Mr. Peña Nieto in 2012. The former head of Pemex has assured in the past that he followed instructions from Mr. Peña Nieto, according to statements that leaked to the press in August 2020 from a judicial source.
“Risk of leakage”
During Wednesday’s hearing, Mr. Lozoya proclaimed his innocence. The prosecution felt that it had “Not respected” obligations linked to his status as the main witness in the Obedrecht case, and requested preventive prison in the face of “Risk of flight”. The prosecution has upheld the charges of criminal conspiracy and corruption against Mr. Lozoya, who faces up to thirty years in prison.
In early October, Mr. Lozoya was seen in a luxurious Chinese restaurant in Lomas, an upscale district of the capital. The photo had caused anger in the media and on social networks.
Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is a flagship of the country’s economy – the 15e in the world -, born from the expropriation of American and British companies by President Lazaro Cardenas in 1938.
The Odebrecht affair splashes into many Latin American countries, where investigations have been opened locally in connection with Brazilian justice – in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic among others.