By Kylie Madry
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday made public a document purporting to reveal the business dealings of a leading opposition politician vying to succeed him next year, prompting her to accuse him of abuse of power and threaten legal action.
Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the information Lopez Obrador posted on social media apparently concerning financial accounts of two companies linked to Senator Xochitl Galvez or members of her family.
“You have violated a series of laws with this, and so I will take legal steps against you and whoever is responsible,” Galvez said on Twitter after the document was made public, without giving more details.
She also accused Lopez Obrador of using “the full apparatus of the state” against her.
Galvez has been gaining ground in the race to be the main opposition candidate in the June 2024 presidential election to face the candidate representing Lopez Obrador’s leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA).
Lopez Obrador cannot run again because Mexican law restricts presidents to a single six-year term.
The president wrote on Twitter that he had “received” information that Galvez had acquired contracts worth a specific sum since 2015, and attached a document that purported to show details of some of that business for the firms. He did not reveal where the information had come from, and the document did not comprehensively detail the sum cited.
A spokesperson for the president did not respond to a request for comment.
The leftist Lopez Obrador has cast himself as a defender of Mexico’s poor majority against a corrupt and wealthy elite, who he has said are aiming to make Galvez their presidential candidate. Galvez, who rejects this narrative, has said her background is more humble than the leading MORENA contenders.
It is not the first time Lopez Obrador has published financial information about a political adversary. Last year, Lopez Obrador released the purported earnings of journalist Carlos Loret de Mola, a prominent critic of the president.
Lopez Obrador touted the amount of business Galvez had supposedly won during a regular press conference earlier on Friday, prompting Galvez to challenge him to back up his claims.
If he could, Galvez pledged to abandon her campaign.
“If not,” she said, “he should resign from the presidency.”
($1 = 16.7366 Mexican pesos)
(Reporting by Kylie Madry; Editing by Dave Graham and Will Dunham)
