The trial of Alexandro Rovirosa Martinez, a businessman accused of bribing officials at Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to obtain contracts worth millions of dollars, begins in the United States. He will go alone. His accomplice, National Action Party member and former Pemex director Mario Alberto Avila Lizarraga, remains a fugitive from US justice. The Southern District of Texas Court will be the venue for an operation that could show how corruption operated within the Mexican oil company during the six-year term of former President Andres Manuel López Obrador.
Rovirosa tried to drop the charges against him, or at least, drop the main evidence coming from Avila Lizarraga’s phone. His defense argued that it was translated incorrectly, and since it was delivered outside the statutory deadlines, it violated the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The court denied this request, stating that the trial was ongoing and that Rovirosa had the option to provide its own translations. According to court documents, some of the statements were “they have to make the deal” with officials, and in several messages they discussed the size of the bribe, and at one point promised that if I helped them solve a problem, I would get a Louis Vuitton bag and a $12,500 Hublot watch. “Hublo is a commission, haha,” the message read.
This corruption conspiracy was uncovered last August by the US Department of Justice. Rovirosa Martinez and his partner Avila Lizarraga are accused of paying bribes to Pemex officials to obtain multi-million dollar contracts. The indictment describes a team of corrupt people who for years paid cash, luxury watches and trips to three top Pemex officials to obtain business, service and platform contracts and to close an audit of their companies. The period of the crimes was from 2019 to 2021, and coincides with part of the term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024), during whose six-year term billions of pesos were pumped into an attempt, unsuccessfully, to clean up the oil company.
Rovirosa tried other legal strategies to try to avoid prosecution. According to his defence, by accusing him of collusion with organized crime, they had violated his rights. He also claimed that the charges were lapsed because the alleged conspiracy would have ended in April 2020. The court responded that his links with organized crime appeared from the evidence and that it showed bribery until October 2021.
He also requested that the conditions of his detention be modified, “to allow him to go on a luxury vacation to Mexico with his wife and children and attend a wedding and a joint birthday celebration” in San Miguel de Allende. The court responded with a resounding refusal, given “the defendant’s wealth, his connections in Mexico, and the strength of the case against him,” as well as the fact that “Avila Lizarraga remains a fugitive in Mexico, the same country to which the defendant wants to travel,” making “the proposal a significant flight risk.”
Both Rovirosa and Avila have been legal residents of the United States since 2016. They are charged with four counts of conspiracy and corrupt practices abroad, with $150,000 (P2.8 million) in bribes given to three Pemex executives “to manipulate bidding processes and secure millions of dollars in lucrative contracts and other benefits.”
El Pais newspaper revealed that Rovirosa signed a contract to exploit the VC-01 oil field in Veracruz, with an area of 125 square kilometers. In one year, this field earned him an income of no less than $1.2 million out of 24 million pesos. The license is for 30 years. Their companies Tubular Technology and Isa Data also secured at least P746 million and 19 contracts to build and maintain wells and gas pipelines and purchase materials with Pemex and its subsidiaries.