Mexican politician's luxurious lifestyle in the U.S.

In yet another scandal concerning the infamously lavish lifestyles of Mexico's politicians, news has broken out that Ricardo Anaya, the president of the conservative Mexican party PAN, has his family living far away from Mexico in an exclusive neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia, and to add insult to injury, the politician's three children are enrolled at one of the most exclusive and expensive private schools in the area and he travels back and forth every single weekend to visit his family.

According to information obtained by EL UNIVERSAL, Ricardo Anaya's annual expenses just to maintain his family's lavish lifestyle in Atlanta, without even including expenses such as entertainment, clothing, and his own expenses in Mexico, etc., amount to a whopping 4,500,000 pesos, around 235,000 dollars. To put this into perspective, the “general” minimum wage in Mexico is less than 1,400 dollars per year and an annual income of 235,000 dollars per year in the U.S. puts a family in the top 4%.

If we break this down, Ricardo Anaya spends per year around 134,000 dollars on rent, 48,501 dollars on financial support and 52,000 dollars on tuition.

In an exclusive interview with EL UNIVERSAL, Ricardo Anaya Cortés shrugged off claims that his family lives a luxurious lifestyle in the U.S. He even said, while defending himself, that he sometimes only has time to spend 1 day with his family in Atlanta.

The Mexican politician also confirmed that he's been traveling every single week to Atlanta since August 2015. The politician has shared numerous photographs in the past on his social media accounts of him with his family in Atlanta.

According to his tax returns, he declared personal taxable income last year in Mexico of around 60,000 dollars and his wife declared around 78,000 dollars.

So, if together they claim to have made around 138,000 dollars, how then are they able to pay 235,000 dollars per year just on rent, tuition and his family's living expenses?

In attempt to justify his family's expenses, Anaya said, without ever actually providing any proof, that he also receives money from rent that he collects on real estate that he owns and that his wife “has personal savings.”

He told us that he has two bank accounts, and when asked how much money he has in the bank, he said “I think it's kind of rude that you would ask me that.”

In addition to the 235,000 dollars, Anaya did not disclose how much he spends on his weekly round-trip, first-class airfare to Atlanta from Mexico, which according to EL UNIVERSAL can cost up to 1,500 dollars.

In Mexico, Ricardo Anaya rents a 430 square-foot luxury condo on Mexico City's main avenue Reforma, which he claims he rents for around 730 dollars per month. Anaya also makes monthly payments on an approximately 300,000 dollar mortgage that he obtained in April 2015.

“My priority in life is my family and my children's education. This is something I've planned for many years. They come back to Mexico in eight months and I'm very proud of all this that I've done for my children,” he said.