AMLO’s brother benefited from millionaire government loan (Opinion)

By Carlos Loret de Mola

MÈXICO, May 26, 2021, (EL UNIVERSAL).- A brother of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has benefited from the federal government’s social programs and rural development bank to strengthen his cattle businesses in Chiapas and Tabasco.

While support and subsidies to the agricultural sector decreased in the country in the last two years, José Ramiro López Obrador received in April 2019 a loan for 1 million 771 thousand pesos, which was granted by the National Financial for Agricultural Development, Rural, Forestal y Pesquero, the government bank that supports peasants and small producers linked to cattle. This is demonstrated by official documents from the Ministry of the Economy obtained through transparency platforms.

José Ramiro, nicknamed ” Pepín “, is the third of the López Obrador brothers and considered one of the closest to the president. He is one of those who has dedicated himself to politics. In fact, he obtained the loan when he was undersecretary of Border Affairs, Migrants and Human Rights of the Government of Tabasco, a position he assumed on January 1, 2019, at the beginning of the administration of the Morena governor Adán Augusto López Hernández; resigned last October. Years before, he was mayor of Macuspana.

In his latest asset declaration, presented on December 31, 2020, to the Tabasco Public Function Secretary, José Ramiro did not publish his credits and assets, arguing that they are confidential data. 

A loan like the one received by the president’s brother can be used to purchase machinery or finance various needs for his business, that is, the beneficiary has a wide margin to maneuver the money. The loan must be repaid in 2024, just when the López Obrador government ends.

In addition to this loan for almost two million pesos, “Pepín” López Obrador has been a discreet beneficiary of the social programs that his brother, the president, boasts so much. In 2019 and 2020 the government gave him a subsidy from the agricultural insurance program Agroasemex.

According to public documents and beneficiary registers obtained through transparency, José Ramiro received in 2019 and 2020 budgetary resources to finance part of the insurance that he has contracted for his cattle in Palenque, Chiapas, and Macuspana, Tabasco.

Agroasemex’s beneficiary registers reveal that in the last two years, the business of the President’s brother has been on the rise: more and more heads of cattle are being insured. Each one is worth an average of 17 thousand pesos, with which the agricultural assets of José Ramiro López Obrador would exceed 5 million pesos. 

In 2019 Agroasemex gave him a subsidy of 9,720 pesos for 100 head of cattle that he has in Macuspana. Then he obtained symbolic support, of 30 and 400 pesos. 

But the Agroasemex’s insurance program is practically disappearing due to lack of Federal resources. This has left thousands of agricultural and livestock producers helpless who depended on subsidies to pay for insurance, with which they could face natural disasters, diseases, pests, and risks inherent to the agricultural sector.

Currently, José Ramiro López Obrador is the general campaign coordinator for Marcos Rosendo Medina, Morena’s candidate for a federal representative for District I, which includes Macuspana and four other municipalities in Tabasco. 

Source: El Universal