Pemex Fights Fire With Fire After Accusations

A dispute over alleged fraud in the Mexican presidential race turned nasty Tuesday as the national oil company said an employee who had raised accusations of illegal campaigning had distributed pornography.

Petroleos Mexicanos, the government-owned oil company known as Pemex, sent out nine senior executives to try to discredit charges that its officials were improperly supporting ruling party candidate Francisco Labastida in the July 2 election.

Labastida is locked in the tightest race in Mexican history with challenger Vicente Fox of the National Action Party, or PAN. Charges of influence-peddling by government bureaucrats in favor of Labastida have become the focus of the race in recent weeks.

Pemex Director General Rogelio Montemayor, a former state governor with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, insisted that Pemex would not tolerate any use of company time or resources for political campaigning.

He told reporters that accusations of illegal campaigning, made last week by Pemex engineer Ramiro Berron, were false. He also alleged that Berron had a history of workplace problems.

Montemayor then handed the microphone to Jose Antonio Ceballos, the company’s director of exploration, who said Berron had been formally warned three weeks ago for allegedly distributing pornography over the company computer network last year.

Berron has made headlines in recent days with accusations that PRI supporters within Pemex had used that same network to distribute campaign propaganda and to press colleagues to vote for Labastida. Using state resources for political purposes is a crime under Mexico’s reformed election laws.

Fox’s party filed charges Friday against Pemex with electoral authorities. The other leading opposition group, the Democratic Revolution Party, also has seized on Berron’s accusations as proof of government favoritism on Labastida’s behalf.

German Martinez, a PAN member of the Chamber of Deputies, accompanied Berron on Tuesday as he presented his case to the electoral crimes prosecutor in Mexico City. Martinez said later of the pornography allegation: “In truth, it makes me laugh. The fact that this man is subject to an investigation does not exonerate or excuse the director general of Pemex.”

Dulce Maria Sauri, the national president of the PRI, said opposition parties are making irresponsible, unfounded accusations designed to unsettle the election. She said it is legitimate for public servants to campaign in their free time and exercise their political rights.

Pemex is the largest state-owned company, with 130,000 employees, and traditionally has been a key backer of the PRI. Berron alleged that his immediate boss and others were using Pemex phone lines and computer networks to contact employees and lobby for Labastida.

Montemayor said that “the case is being investigated, but we have found no evidence that the Pemex network has been used for these purposes. . . . I am saying it is false--that no one, at any time, has coerced any employee or laborer to promote or to carry out a political task.”

He said Berron’s case “is being promoted by political parties that undoubtedly have a specific interest.”

Montemayor and Ceballos declined to discuss Berron further or say whether the 19-year veteran, assistant to a regional director based in the southern city of Villahermosa, is a good employee.

Asked whether disclosing Berron’s labor history was relevant to his allegations or was instead an attempt to smear him, Montemayor responded: “That is not the purpose. In any complaint, one has to take into account the context.”

Opposition parties have conceded that the campaign is fairer than those in the past. They maintain, however, that with such a close vote, any improper influence could be critical.

As opposition party accusations have mounted, President Ernesto Zedillo has sought to underline the government’s conviction that the campaign is the fairest in Mexico’s history.

“Regardless of what party we belong to or sympathize with,” he said, “we public servants, more than anyone else, have the duty to respect the law and contribute conditions of respect and civility that always are necessary in any democracy.”