Mexican Presidency Fends Off Accusation

This country’s ruling institutions faced down one of the boldest attacks ever on a sitting Mexican president on Friday--an accusation that Ernesto Zedillo acted improperly in the granting of a $7-million payment to a tortilla company when he was a Cabinet secretary in 1989.

The accusation, which became public Friday after a prominent legislator sent it to a congressional commission, marked the first time the president’s name has emerged in a series of corruption investigations that are shaking up Mexico’s long-ruling party.

Zedillo’s office hotly denied any wrongdoing. And the head of the congressional anti-corruption commission said he saw nothing improper in Zedillo’s behavior and no need to investigate the allegation.

But the presidency bared its knuckles at the unaccustomed challenge. It publicly “deplored” the legislator’s behavior and issued a communique threatening to use “legal channels” to pursue the affair.

The communique also harshly criticized the New York Times for a “one-sided and evil-minded” article based on the allegations by left-wing independent Congressman Adolfo Aguilar Zinser.

While independent analysts said it is unclear whether Zedillo in fact committed any wrongdoing, they called the controversy a vivid illustration of the dramatic change in Mexico’s authoritarian political system.

“Many of the unwritten rules in terms of the president being unassailable . . . have broken down completely,” political scientist Denise Dresser said. “The president is fair game now.”

Aguilar Zinser emphasized in an interview that he has no evidence showing that Zedillo committed illegal acts or obtained bribes or other personal benefits.

But he questioned Zedillo’s actions in the awarding of a $7-million payment to corn-flour maker Maseca while Zedillo served as budget secretary in the Cabinet of then-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. The business is run by Mexico’s “tortilla king,” Roberto Gonzalez Barrera, a close friend of Salinas.

“I have a very strong case here” of questionable behavior, Aguilar Zinser said.

“No one has ever done this in the history of Mexico. No one has gone into Congress to suggest or indicate the president should be investigated for his acts on duty as a government official,” he said.

Aguilar Zinser, a member of the commission examining corruption in a government food agency known as Conasupo, handed a 24-page report to the commission late Thursday detailing the alleged irregularities.

The allegation came amid a widening scandal over the finances of Raul Salinas de Gortari, the former president’s brother.

The prosecutor general’s office is investigating how Raul Salinas amassed a fortune of at least $100 million while serving as a mid-level government official--including a stint at Conasupo.

As the curtain is raised on the apparent excesses of the Salinas era, Mexicans appear to feel increasingly free to attack the presidency itself--long an imperial institution.

Zedillo, a 44-year-old economist, has distanced himself from the Salinas government, frequently emphasizing his opposition to corruption.

A presidential aide insisted Friday that Zedillo is still committed to working with a Congress that rejects its old role as a rubber-stamp body.

“But we are not talking here about an investigation by Congress. We are talking about something being brought forward by a member of Congress,” the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Ruling-party members of the anti-corruption commission also struck back.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, holds a majority on the commission, and the deputies indicated Friday that the matter will go no further.

“We have no evidence that allows us to consider as well-founded the declarations of Deputy Aguilar Zinser,” the president of the commission, PRI member Manuel Hinojosa, said at a news conference.

“In fact, we believe that this is an issue that was diligently studied by all the competent authorities at the time and that was resolved with complete transparency.”

The accusations by Aguilar Zinser concern payments made to Maseca, which is a major beneficiary of government subsidies aimed at maintaining low prices for tortillas, a staple of the Mexican diet.

Here are his allegations:

In the late 1980s, the government had delayed for about a year its payment of tortilla subsidies to Maseca. Finally, in October 1988, Maseca received 35 billion pesos--about $16 million at the exchange rate at the time--in overdue subsidies, in an agreement it signed with the Commerce Department and Conasupo, the food agency.

But Maseca was unhappy. It stated it had lost money because it was paid late during a period of high inflation. It asked for compensation of 15 billion pesos, or nearly $7 million.

Over the next year, the issue bounced from department to department. First it went to the Commerce Department, which put together a group of experts that ruled the tortilla company should not get the extra money.

Maseca appealed.

Conasupo then asked Zedillo to seek opinions on the matter from legal experts in his budget and commerce departments and the comptroller’s office, which oversees government spending.

The lawyers in the comptroller’s office declared that Maseca was not entitled to the money.

But rather than consult with the other lawyers, Zedillo told Conasupo that the Commerce Department should make the decision.

Commerce decided to pay Maseca.

Aguilar Zinser, the legislator, said Zedillo should have been aware of the controversy surrounding the Maseca compensation and should have sought the opinions of all three departments’ legal experts, as Conasupo had asked.

“There were, absolutely, prior opinions and resolutions indicating it was a wrong payment,” Aguilar Zinser said.