• CONTRACTS: Mexico’s Ministry of Defense awarded last year two water pump maintenance contracts worth US $54,000 to a company partially owned by an aide in president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s travel logistics office which has been the center of controversy in the past.
• CONFLICT: According to an investigation by anti-graft group Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad (MCCI), an engineering firm where former presidential aide Ángel Manuel Medel Ríos was a partner -and of which still owns stock- won two Defense contracts to service water pumps.
• ENGINEERING: “I never had a direct decision on contracts or resources of the (firm). I only worked in the engineering projects for which (the firm) was hired”, said Medel Ríos, who worked as an aide to the president between 2020 and 2021. He works now at Mexico’s National Water Commission (CONAGUA).
• ASSISTANTSHIP: Known in Spanish as the “ayudantía”, the president’s logistics office has been a springboard for several young aides to reach higher positions in the López Obrador administration; per Mexico City’s Reforma newspaper 10 former presidential aides were able to move up to more senior posts.
