Mystery of Mexico's president, a luxury mansion and cancelled US$3.7b bullet-train contract
Questions are being asked in Mexico over a mansion owned by President Enrique Pena Nieto's wife after the cancellation of a high-speed railway contract awarded to a Chinese-led consortium.
The sprawling mansion in the elegant hills on Mexico City's western edge is said to be worth US$7 million. Its floors and walls are white marble, it is equipped with spas and pools, and it boasts coloured lighting that allows rooms to be flooded in orange or purple or pink.
According to a new report, none other than President Enrique Pena Nieto and his soap-star wife, who arrived in Beijing yesterday for the Apec Summit.
He never paid for it, however.
The luxury home on a 15,220 sq ft property was built and is owned by Ingenieria Inmobiliaria del Centro, a company belonging to Grupo Higa, according to a report published on Sunday by Aristegui Noticias, the website of journalist Carmen Aristegui.
Constructora Teya, another Grupo Higa company, was part of a Chinese-led consortium awarded the US$3.7 billion Mexico City-Queretaro high-speed railway contract, a project Pena Nieto showcased as part of his push to modernise transport.
Opposition lawmakers criticised the rapid approval process that produced only one bidder as smacking of the insider favours long associated with Pena Nieto's political party, the institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.