Mexican President Changes Asset Declaration

(Baonghean.vn) - Under pressure to declare details of his personal assets, the Mexican President changed his declaration after Reuters reported and public opinion raised many doubts about how he bought one of the lands near Mexico City.

Mexican President Pena Nieto.

President Enrique Pena Nieto has been forced to update his annual wealth declaration after Reuters reported he had bought a plot of land in the town of Valle de Bravo, which he claimed was an inheritance from his late father. Opposition lawmakers from the far left and far right have demanded Pena Nieto fully disclose his personal assets, which total at least $3 million.

The new declaration was supplemented with a note explaining the properties he had purchased, including a 24,000 square meter plot of land that his father contributed. "My father, Mr. Enrique Pena del Mazo, paid the price, he also specified that the properties would be in my name, and that is why the land is declared as an inheritance," the note stated.

However, a registration document obtained by Reuters shows Pena Nieto buying these properties, with no reference to his father in the document. According to Reuters, lawyers said the inaccurate declaration of assets constitutes a false statement by the entire government.

Asked to explain the discrepancy, presidential spokesman Eduardo Sanchez told Reuters there was no discrepancy. “In 1988, his father made the purchase and sale, and put the property in his son’s name,” Sanchez said. “It is a common practice in Mexico’s legal framework that parents or guardians can buy property and register it in the name of their descendants. That is why this property is not in the public deed.”

The lawyer argued that, under Mexican law, even if the father had given him the money to buy the property, he could not declare it as an inheritance, based on articles 7610 and 7620 of the Civil Code of the Mexican State.

Phuong Thao

(According to Reuters)