Under Scrutiny for Wealth, Powerful Boss of Mexico’s Oil Workers Union Resigns

Corruption in Mexico’s oil company, whose full name is Petróleos Mexicanos, has a decades-long history. One of its former chief executives served a five-year prison term in the 1980s, and a former union boss, Joaquín Hernández Galicia, was arrested in 1989 and jailed on arms charges.

His arrest allowed Mr. Romero Deschamps to take over the union’s leadership four years later.

“It was a regime of corruption and deal-making,” Mr. López Obrador said Wednesday in describing Pemex. He has promised that eliminating corruption will allow the company, sinking under more than $100 billion in debt, to reverse years of declining production.

“They were covered up, the untouchables couldn’t be touched,” Mr. López Obrador said. “Now it is not like that, it’s over, impunity will no longer be allowed for anybody.”

But it is unclear if the allegations against Mr. Romero Deschamps will lead to formal charges, much less a trial.

“It is not a fight against corruption if it is just about removing the (allegedly) corrupt from their positions,” wrote Carlos Bravo, a columnist and professor at CIDE, a Mexico City university, on Twitter.

“It is a fight against corruption if, as well as removing the (allegedly) corrupt from their positions, there is a trial to bring justice and not let them to enjoy impunity,” he added.

Manuel Limón, a PRI legislator who is also the union’s secretary of internal affairs, is next in line to lead the union. But Mr. López Obrador pointed out that under a new labor law, Pemex union members will have the right to choose their leader by a secret ballot.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/world/americas/mexico-pemex-union.html?emc=rss&partner=rss