President Pena Nieto Faces Charge Contractor Rewarded Him with Mexico Mansion Tim Johnson - McClatchy
go to original November 10, 2014

Pena Nieto's Casa La Palma (Aristegui Noticias)

MEXICO CITY — A Mexican investigative team reported Sunday that President Enrique Pena Nieto and his actress wife possess a posh mansion built to their taste by a company that has grown fat with government contracts.

Pena Nieto has not reported the mansion, worth an estimated $7 million, on his official declaration of assets in the past two years, the team said.

The allegation falls on Pena Nieto at a time when he faces lagging support and public outrage over an apparent massacre of 43 students. It may also test his image as a leader who claims to battle corruption and fight for the rule of law.

Known as Casa La Palma, the mansion was built by a subsidiary of Grupo Higa, which has earned hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts under Pena Nieto, according to investigative reporters at aristeguinoticias.com, a news portal led by Carmen Aristegui, a radio and television journalist.

The mansion has an underground parking garage, an elevator, seven bedrooms, marble floors and a special system of recessed mood lighting that changes colors. Two distinctive palm trees jut above its white exterior.

First lady Angelica Rivera told a society magazine that the mansion belongs to her and her husband, and says it will be their future home once they leave Los Pinos, the official presidential residence in Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park, even though the deed remains in the name of a subsidiary of Grupo Higa.

Rivera’s claims of possession of the mansion might not seem newsworthy, except for the explosive events of the past week.

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