By Nancy Caouette
MEXICO CITY
President Enrique Pena Nieto disclosed personal financial holdings late Wednesday, in an attempt to appease growing public anger about a multimillion dollar house in his wife’s name that was bought from a government contractor.
“I have decided to make public all of my personal assets with the goal of winning society’s trust,” the president said.
The president has been under fire after ever since an investigation by Aristegui Noticias showed that the Mexican firm Grupo Higa that sold the house to Pena Nieto’s wife is linked to a Chinese-led consortium that recently received a $3.7 billion contract from the Mexican government to build the first high-speed rail in Mexico.
Earlier this week, first lady Angelica Rivera sent a video to local media wherein she said the house in Mexico City was paid with income she earned while working for 25 years as an actress.
She agreed to pay $4 million dollars in eight years to Grupo Higa for the house at 9 percent interest, she said, and on her personal website she posted the terms that were signed six months before Pena Nieto was elected.
The first lady added that she would sell the luxurious white mansion to help easy public anger and restore her family’s integrity.
Pena Nieto posted documents to the Mexican president’s website that listed his assets, investments and savings valued at about $3.3 millions dollars. It also revealed he earns an annual income of $250,000, owns four houses, an apartment and four lots of land.
He previously reported his income and the number of properties he owns but failed to provide details.
Two of the houses and the land were gifts from his parents, but he inherited the apartment from his first after she died in 2007, according to Pena Nieto.
While the public disclosure of the first family’s finances may quiet some of the president’s critics, his lingering headaches resulting from mass protests of 43 missing student, who have not been seen since Sept. 26, will probably continue as thousands of protesters are expected to demonstrate Thursday night ion Mexico's streets. More than 200 marches are organized around the country and the world.
Protesters are demanding that the government find the students who disappeared after clashing with the police in Iguala, about 120 miles south of Mexico City.
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