On Wednesday, February 7th, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador vehemently rejected claims that drug traffickers helped to fund his first presidential campaign in 2006, describing the allegations as “completely false.”
Lopez Obrador also criticized US authorities for violating “political ethics” after the claims appeared in an article published on the ProPublica news site, which cited American officials.
According to the report by investigative journalist Tim Golden, US drug enforcement agents uncovered “substantial evidence” that cocaine traffickers had funneled around $2 million to Lopez Obrador’s campaign.
“It’s slander… there’s no evidence” of illegal financing, the Mexican president said at his regular morning news conference.
“I denounce the US government for allowing these immoral practices contrary to the political ethics that should prevail in all governments in the world,” he added.
According to Golden’s article, based on interviews with US and Mexican officials as well as government documents, traffickers allegedly provided funds in return for a promise that a Lopez Obrador government would facilitate their operations.
The report said that it was unclear whether Lopez Obrador sanctioned or was even aware of the funding.
He narrowly lost the election.
Similar articles were also published by the InSight Crime think tank and the German media group Deutsche Welle.
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