Pemex workers file new charges against union leader Romero Deschamps

A splinter group of the Mexican Oil Workers Union has filed additional charges to those presented in 2016 before the Assistant Attorney General for Investigations on Organized Crime (SEIDO) against union leader Carlos Romero Deschamps, for illicit enrichment of USD$150 million.

According to Miguel Arturo Flores Contreras, head of the Active Oil Workers Union in Evolution for a New Mexico, the former PRI senator and his front men have stripped out 126 convenience stores, 26 factories, and 148,263 acres of land from the National Oil Workers’ Union (SNTPRM).

“We have been stripped from the assets and heritage that our parents and grandparents worked so hard to build and that is why we are working to take it back,” stated the splinter group leader.

Flores Contreras claimed that 30 oil company workers had confirmed the allegations a few months ago. Yesterday, more evidence was submitted against Romero Deschamps and his associates, who were also accused of selling job posts and charging fees.

“In the past few years, we have managed to prepare a very comprehensive dossier against Carlos Romero Deschamps to validate the lawsuits presented against him for organized crime, transactions involving illegally-sourced funds, tax evasion, fraud, illicit enrichment, and extortion,” he stated.

The Mexican Oil Workers’ Union (STPRM) has now filed an appeal (“amparo”) to avoid disclosing any information concerning their leader, Carlos Romero Deschamps.

Through the amparo proceeding 42/2019, dated January 24, 2019, the union managed to negotiate a definitive suspension at the 12th District Court on Administrative Matters in Mexico City, at a time when the general secretary of the union is being questioned for illicit enrichment, among other crimes.

The permanent suspension, endorsed by the acting judge Blanca Lobo Domínguez, covers all types of information concerning agreements and financial support that the union has received from the state oil company Mexican Petroleums (Pemex).

Following a request for information by a private individual related to agreements signed by both Pemex and the STPRM since 2013 through the National Transparency Platform, the Legal Authority of the oil company responded that “the disclosure of the requested information has been legally restricted.”

The 12th District Court in Mexico City notified that the oil workers union had filed the “amparo” proceeding 42/2019 against the acts of the government management assistant at Pemex on the premise that “the disclosure of said information would be in violation of the fundamental rights and individual guarantees described in Article 16 of the Constitution of the United Mexican States.”

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador referred to a criminal charge against Romero Deschamps related to fuel theft, “though it has not yet been ratified. The complainants must extend their request before the specialized unit.”

The oil workers union has a habit of resorting to “amparo” appeals to avoid disclosing information related to Pemex and the STPRM.