The public should have the right to choose whether ex-presidents should face trial, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Tuesday.
AMLO said he did not want to pursue former presidents in court.
But he urged Congress to ratify a proposal approved by the lower house in March that would change the constitution to facilitate referendums and pave the way for a so-called recall vote on his presidency halfway through his six-year term.
“And once (the constitution) has been reformed and these referendums can be held, if the people ask for it and want ex-presidents to stand trial, that right is guaranteed,” Lopez Obrador said at his daily early-morning news conference.
On Monday, Irma Sandoval, head of the Public Administration Ministry, said the government had filed a criminal complaint against a number of former officials over the case of a luxury house acquired by Enrique Pena Nieto’s then-wife, Angela Rivera.
In November 2014, it emerged that Rivera was purchasing the house from a government contractor, a possible conflict of interest for the then-president.
Pena Nieto was later cleared, but Sandoval confirmed that Pena Nieto was again under investigation.
Prosecutors have also launched investigations of two top officials from the previous administration for alleged misuse of public funds: Emilio Lozoya, former boss of state oil firm Pemex, and ex-Social Development Minister Rosario Robles.
Source: Reuters
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