Segalmex, a parastatal created by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to achieve food self-sufficiency in the four staple grains of the Mexican diet, has been found to be monumentally corrupt. The Superior Audit of the Federation discovered irregularities amounting to over 15 billion pesos in its first two years, double the size of the notorious Master Scam during the Enrique Peña Nieto government. What distinguishes Segalmex is not only the massive amount of corrupt funds involved but also the hand of the Presidency of the Republic behind these illegal acts.
Although the Attorney General of the Republic has taken some action, prosecuting the alleged perpetrators, this is seen by some as more of a charade than an act of justice. The Attorney General seems to be protecting Ignacio Ovalle, who was the first director of Segalmex and who paved the way for López Obrador in federal public administration. Ovalle is being defended by the President, who wants to absolve him of moral responsibility and guilt, arguing that he was a “good man” who was duped by PRI members. However, this is just a ploy to mislead the public, as Ovalle’s colleagues were found to have extorted suppliers by demanding commissions under the guise of quotas.
The affected suppliers complain of compulsory contributions which they claim are political funds, probably not entirely, reportedly coming out of the treasury. These funds have caused alarm among several Presidential collaborators. Despite this, it took half a year before 38 complaints were filed with the Prosecutor’s Office, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the Financial Intelligence Unit, and the Public Function Secretariat. Segalmex was a box into which money went not all towards the purchase of grains for the most marginalized sectors of society, but for political purposes.
The corruption in Segalmex is not just monetary. An investigation in the United States by the FBI revealed that Segalmex was used by Venezuelan intelligence agents with close contacts to López Obrador government officials. They arranged to send at least 210,000 tons of corn in exchange for millions of barrels of oil, an illegal operation linked to both support for the Nicolás Maduro regime and corruption.
Segalmex is a deep well of corruption, extortion, and ideological objectives that continue to grow. It is also a ticking time bomb at the heart of the National Palace.
The corruption in Segalmex, the parastatal Created by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to provide food self-sufficiency in the four basic grains of the Mexican diet, it is monumental. In its first two years of operating, the Superior Audit of the Federation found irregularities for more than 15 billion pesos, double the so-called Master Scam, which was considered the biggest robbery in the government of Enrique Peña Nieto. What happens in Segalmex is exponentially greater, not only because of the amount of dirty money, but because behind these illegal acts is the hand of the Presidency of the Republic.
The actions that the Attorney General of the Republic has undertaken seem more simulation than act of justice, to protect who was its first director, Ignacio Ovalle, who opened the door for López Obrador of the federal public administration, and who has defended the President to the absurdity of cleansing him morally of responsibility and guilt with the argument that he was a “good man” who was deceived by PRI members. It is a scam on public opinion, due to the cover-up of those who kept silent when they stole public money from the company he ran, and by ignoring that, in parallel, his collaborators extorted suppliers, from whom they demanded commissions under the guise and quotas .
The part of these compulsory contributions is the least explored in the public sphere, because the affected businessmen do not want to talk yet regarding the experience they have lived since the beginning of the six-year term. Some of them were donors in the presidential campaign of López Obrador who went to receive support from the National Palace, and they were sent with Ovalle to become Segalmex suppliers. Ovalle received them, but did not attend to them -in fact, he never wanted to sign anything, knowing that it might compromise him in the future-, but he sent them to his subordinates, who asked them to over-invoice by 50% the total amount of their products that they returned to them. , according to what some said in private. They were instructions, they said, to collect money for “the movement”.
It is political money, although probably not in its entirety, supposedly destined for the cause and the movement, it came out of the treasury and caused alerts from several presidential collaborators. One of them, the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, informed him shortly following taking office that the corruption in Segalmex was alarming, as the ASF had suggested, without him doing anything.
In September of last year, the Attorney General, Alejandro Gertz Manero, told the President regarding the first two complaints once morest nine probable perpetrators of irregularities in the management of public resources during 2019 and 2020. Shortly following, he reported 38 complaints filed in the Prosecutor’s Office, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Public Function Secretariat, without moving for half a year.
The press revelations regarding corruption in Segalmex began in 2020, but Ovalle was protected by an aura of impunity, until February of last year, when he was replaced by Leonel Cota, former governor of Baja California Sur and former leader of the PRD -when López Obrador was still a member there-, and that in the current government he served as executive secretary of the National System of Public Security. Ovalle did not fall into disgrace, and according to an official communiqué, the President had appointed him coordinator of the National Institute for Federalism and Municipal Development, attached to the Ministry of the Interior.
In the reality of the National Palace, López Obrador did not find out what was going to happen to Ovalle. It is not something unusual in the President, who has a notable lack of interest in any issue that is not electoral. When he realized that Ovalle had been appointed to another position, he demanded that Lázaro Cárdenas, his then chief adviser, have been appointed. Cárdenas, according to what officials said, replied that Ovalle had not really done anything that he had not been instructed to do by the National Palace, so that, it might be interpreted, they might not abandon him but rather protect him. And he stayed in office.
Segalmex, from what can be inferred from public information up to now, was a box into which money entered that did not all go to the purchase of grains for the most marginalized segments of the country, but to be used, probably, for political objectives. . In its first two years of operation, the ASF detected irregularities for 15 thousand 300 million pesos, doubling the Master Scam that amounted to 7 thousand 600, for which, with evidence invented by the Prosecutor’s Office, Rosario Robles, former Secretary of Social Development in the Peña Nieto government, spent three years in jail accused of millionaire deviations from the treasury.
Under the same logic with which they acted once morest Robles, Ovalle should be in prison, as well as the Secretary of Agriculture, on whom Segalmex depends. But not. What there are are arrest warrants once morest 22 people of a much lower rank, accused of an embezzlement of 15 billion pesos, for the alleged crime of organized crime, money laundering and embezzlement for the simulated purchase of almost 8 thousand tons of sugar.
At the same time, there is an investigation in the United States, headed by the FBI and triggered by one of the emails hacked in the so-called Guacamaya Leaks, which reveals that Segalmex was used by Venezuelan intelligence agents with close contacts with López Obrador government officials, to send at least 210 thousand tons of corn in exchange for millions of barrels of oil, which is considered an illegal operation. US agents have pointed out that the Mexicans acted for both ideological reasons – support for the Nicolás Maduro regime and the so-called bolivarist revolution-, as for corruption.
Segalmex is a deep well where corruption, extortion, political and ideological objectives are mixed, whose embezzlement does not stop but continues to grow every year. It is also a time bomb that is going off in the heart of the National Palace.
rrivapalacio@ejecentral.com.mx
twitter: @rivapa
The corrupt practices in Segalmex, the parastatal created by President López Obrador to achieve food self-sufficiency in Mexico, are deeply troubling. Despite the Attorney General’s attempts to investigate, it seems that those at the top of Segalmex, including the former director Ignacio Ovalle, have not faced any real consequences. The amount of money involved in this scandal is enormous, and it is concerning that it may have been used for political and ideological purposes. It is a time bomb that might have serious consequences for the government if not addressed soon. It is imperative that those responsible for this corruption are held accountable, and that reforms are put in place to prevent such practices from happening once more in the future.
