The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced on Tuesday a relay in Mexican Food Security (Segalmex), the body it created at the beginning of the six-year term to bring together Diconsa and Liconsa.
Segalmex will now be headed by Leonel Cota, a politician who was governor of Baja California Sur, mayor of La Paz and federal deputy, and who until now was the head of the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP). Cota was a militant of the PRD and after being a soldier there he approached López Obrador’s movement.
Cota will take the place of Ignacio Ovalle, who until now had been the sole owner of Segalmex.
Former deputy, former ambassador to Argentina and Cuba and former head of the National Company of Popular Subsistence (Conasupo), when the PRI had the federal government, Ovalle will remain in the current administration.
Now, Ovalle will be the new coordinator of the National Institute for Federalism and Municipal Development (Inafed), which is part of the Ministry of the Interior (Segob).
The relief comes as criminal investigations are underway into possible acts of corruption in Segalmex while Ovalle was in charge.
In mid-March, Political Animal published that the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) is investigating 20 complaints of possible acts of corruption in the agency.
One of these files corresponds to René Gavira Segreste, former director of Administration and Finance of Segalmex and Liconsa, who is related to the possible diversion of 950 million pesos of public resources.
Gavira has said he received orders from Ovalle to carry out the acts for which he is now being investigated, although he has not given evidence of this.
Read more: Former Segalmex official is linked to prosecution for improper purchase of stock market bonds for $100 million pesos
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