Thread by @KurtHackbarth

1. The 2018 presidential candidate from the conservative party PAN, Ricardo Anaya, has fled to the United States to avoid arrest on charges of accepting bribes and illicit enrichment.

tribuna.com.mx/mexico/2021/8/…

2. As I reported a year ago, Anaya stands accused of accepting some 6.8 million pesos worth of bribes in order to pass the energy counterreforms of 2013-2014, in his role as Congressman and Speaker of the House. (Full piece here: jacobinmag.com/2020/08/pena-n…)

3. The money -upwards of $10 million dollars- was funneled from the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht through the presidential campaign of Peña Nieto by means of Emilio Lozoya, who then became head of the state oil company PEMEX.

milenio.com/politica/odebr…

4. Congress was then paid off to pass the energy counterreform, which opened the energy sector to private investment (and, of course, benefitted Odebrecht with contracts). A Congress-for-hire. And Anaya, according to witnesses, was a key player.

5. Anaya denies everything - of course. And is crying political persecution - of course. But what looks likely is that a long-awaited investigation by the AG into the shady dealings that opened Mexico's energy sector is on the cusp -fiiiiiiiinally- of bearing fruit.