 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2013) |
The Mexican presidential expenses controversy, widely dubbed Toallagate ("towelgate"), was a political scandal that occurred in Mexico in 2001 involving expenditures on the residence of President Vicente Fox. The affair caused severe embarrassment to the Fox administration and resulted in the resignations of Carlos Rojas, the head of the presidential acquisitions committee, and at least three members of Rojas' staff.
In June 2001, the Mexican newspaper Milenio reported that the president's office had spent around US $440,000 to redecorate two cabins in the presidential compound, Los Pinos. Among the items bought were embroidered towels at $400 apiece and a set of sheets costing at least $1,500. [1] The spending came to light after Milenio reporters utilised Compranet, a Mexican government website established to make government procurement more transparent, to scrutinise the expenditure of the presidential office.[ citation needed ]
Milenio's report caused immediate controversy, as Fox had promised during his election campaign to run an austere government and rein in excessive spending. Fox responded by instructing Francisco Barrio, the chief government auditor, to investigate the expenditures. Barrio reported that he had found irregularities including overpricing, purchases of items that had not been ordered and improper down-payments. Journalists carrying out follow-up investigations found that business addresses listed on expenses reports were false, and that the telephone numbers of suppliers used by the government had been disconnected. [1]
Fox acknowledged that the expenditures were of importance to all Mexicans and promised that those found responsible would be fired. He accepted the resignation of Carlos Rojas, the head of the presidential acquisitions committee and a longtime friend of the president. Three members of Rojas' staff also resigned and three more were suspended. [1] The president sought to turn the expenses controversy to his advantage by saying the fact that his own government had put the expenditures into the public domain proved that it was committed to transparency. [2]
Vicente Fox Quesada is a Mexican businessman and politician who served as the 62nd president of Mexico from 1 December 2000 to 30 November 2006. After campaigning as a right-wing populist, Fox was elected president on the National Action Party (PAN) ticket in the 2000 election. He became the first president not from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) since 1929, and the first elected from an opposition party since Francisco I. Madero in 1911. Fox won the election with 42 percent of the vote.
Carlos Salinas de GortariCYC DMN is a Mexican economist and politician who served as 60th president of Mexico from 1988 to 1994. Affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), earlier in his career he worked in the Secretariat of Programming and Budget, eventually becoming Secretary. He secured the party's nomination for the 1988 general election and was elected amid widespread accusations of electoral fraud.
On October 2, 1968 in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City, the Mexican Armed Forces opened fire on a group of unarmed civilians in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas who were protesting the upcoming 1968 Summer Olympics. The Mexican government and media claimed that the Armed Forces had been provoked by protesters shooting at them, but government documents made public since 2000 suggest that snipers had been employed by the government.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party is a political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 and held uninterrupted power in the country for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000, first as the National Revolutionary Party, then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution and finally as the PRI beginning in 1946.
Pemex is the Mexican state-owned petroleum company managed and operated by the Mexican government. It was formed in 1938 by nationalization and expropriation of all private oil companies in Mexico at the time of its formation. Pemex had total assets worth $101.8 billion in December 2019 and as of 2009 was Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue, surpassed only by Petrobras. The company is the seventh most polluting in the world according to The Guardian.
Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado was a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as the 59th president of Mexico from 1982 to 1988.
Marta Sahagún served as the First Lady of Mexico from 2 July 2001, when she married President Vicente Fox, until he left office on 30 November 2006. Her tenure was marked by her outspoken views and active role in her husband's administration, in contrast to previous First Ladies of Mexico, as well as several controversies regarding her nonprofit Vamos México foundation and her family's business dealings.
Juan Esteban Montero Rodríguez was a Chilean political figure. He served twice as president of Chile between 1931 and 1932.
Roberto Madrazo Pintado is a Mexican fraudster and politician, member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. He was the candidate of the alliance between his party and the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) in the 2006 Mexican presidential election.
The December 2001 crisis, sometimes known as the Argentinazo, was a period of civil unrest and rioting in Argentina, which took place during December 2001, with the most violent incidents taking place on 19 and 20 December in the capital, Buenos Aires, Rosario and other large cities around the country. It was preceded by a popular revolt against the Argentine government, rallying behind the motto "All of them must go!", which caused the resignation of then-president Fernando de la Rúa, giving way to a period of political instability during which five government officials performed the duties of the Argentinian presidency. This period of instability occurred during the larger period of crisis known as the Argentine great depression, an economic, political, and social crisis that lasted from 1998 until 2002.
The Greek Financial Audit was a 2004 investigation into the true extent of Greece's public finances. It examined government revenue, spending and the level of Greek government borrowing.
Pemexgate was a political scandal of the Mexican political party PRI that occurred during the presidency of Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000) and was discovered and investigated during the presidency of Vicente Fox (2000-2006). It was centered on the transfer of 500 million pesos to the PRI candidate for the 2000 Presidential Elections, Francisco Labastida Ochoa, from Pemex, Mexico's national oil company.
General elections were held in Mexico on Sunday, 2 July 2006. Voters went to the polls to elect a new President of the Republic to serve a six-year term, replacing then Mexican President Vicente Fox ; 500 members of the Chamber of Deputies to serve for a three-year term in; and 128 members of the Senate to serve six-year terms.
Enrique Peña Nieto, commonly referred to by his initials EPN, is a Mexican politician who served as the 64th president of Mexico from 1 December 2012 to 30 November 2018. A member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), he previously served as Governor of the State of Mexico from 2005 to 2011, local deputy from 2003 to 2004, and Secretary of Administration from 2000 to 2002.
The president of Mexico, officially the president of the United Mexican States, is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the Constitution of Mexico, the president heads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the Mexican Armed Forces. The current president is Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office on 1 December 2018.
Anabel Hernández García is a Mexican journalist and author, known for her investigative journalism of Mexican drug trafficking and into the alleged collusion between US government officials and drug lords. She has also written about slave labor, sexual exploitation, and abuse of government power. She won the Golden Pen of Freedom Award 2012, which is presented annually by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.
General elections were held in Mexico on 1 July 2018. Voters elected a new President of Mexico to serve a six-year term, 128 members of the Senate for a period of six years and 500 members of the Chamber of Deputies for a period of three years. It was one of the largest election days in Mexican history, with most of the nation's states holding state and local elections on the same day, including nine governorships, with over 3,400 positions subject to elections at all levels of government. It was the most violent campaign Mexico has experienced in recent history, with 130 political figures killed since September 2017.
Jimmy Morales is a Guatemalan politician, actor and comedian. From 2016 to 2020, he served as the 50th president of Guatemala.
Unomásuno is a Mexican daily tabloid newspaper circulated in Mexico City. Formed in 1977 by former employees of Mexico City's daily newspaper Excélsior, it became one of the leading leftist newspapers in Mexico during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The newspaper covered investigative topics that were often avoided by the rest of the Mexican press at the time, and it was a harsh critic of the Mexican government. By the mid-1980s, disagreements over the newspaper's management style led to internal divisions. Those who disagreed with Unomásuno and its future initiatives left in 1984 and formed La Jornada, another leftist daily in Mexico City.
On 18 January 2019, a pipeline transporting gasoline exploded in the town of Tlahuelilpan, in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. The blast killed at least 137 people and injured dozens more. Mexican authorities blamed fuel thieves, who had illegally tapped the pipeline. The explosion was particularly deadly because large crowds of people had gathered at the scene to steal fuel. Security forces tried to persuade people to move away from the scene, but they were outnumbered and asked not to engage with civilians for fear of causing a violent confrontation. The leak was reported at 17:04 CST (11:04 UTC), and the explosion occurred two hours later at 19:10. It took about four hours for responders to extinguish the fire.