Two corruption scandals in the US cite payments of bribes to officials at the CFE in return for contracts.
2010
In September 2010, ABB, a Swiss corporation, admitted that ABB Network Management, paid bribes to officials at CFE from 1997 to 2004, totaling approximately $1.9 million.[4] In exchange for the bribe payments, according to court documents, ABB received contracts worth more than $81 million in revenue.
The matter was resolved in September 2010 in a US court.[5]
2011
In May 2011, Lindsey Manufacturing Company of the US was convicted by a US federal jury under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for their alleged roles in a scheme to pay bribes to officials at the CFE.
The bribes were paid through an intermediary, who allegedly had a corrupt relationship with a senior CFE official.[6] Lindsey Manufacturing allegedly received more than $19 million in CFE business over the course of seven years as a result of working through the intermediary.[6]
According to evidence presented at trial, the intermediary bought a CFE official a $297,500 Ferrari Spyder and a $1.8 million yacht, as well as paying more than $170,000 towards the official's credit card bills.[7] In December 2011, a US District Court dismissed the indictments against Lindsey Manufacturing, citing misconduct by the prosecution. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said it planned to appeal the dismissal,[7] but in May 2012 the government withdrew its appeal.[8]
2016
Enrique Ochoa Reza settlement agreement scandal
In September 2016, it was reported by Pablo Gomez from Aristegui Noticias, that Enrique Ochoa Reza, who had stepped down two months earlier as head of the commission after being selected leader of his party, had received $1,206,000.00 pesos as a settlement agreement, despite voluntarily resigning his position. Furthermore, Ochoa Reza stayed on the commission's top job for only two years and 155 days, while the "Manual de Trabajo de Servidores Publicos de Mando la CFE" (the regulation concerning high-ranking positions in the CFE) clearly stipulates that settlements can only apply after a minimum three years on the job, and only to those individuals whose retirement is not voluntary. The payment probably constituted a violation of the Mexican Constitution's Article 127 as well, which prohibits settlements of this nature in favour of state-owned corporations' employees (with few exceptions).[9] Despite the media and popular backlash, Ochoa maintained the settlement agreement was legal. Two months later, in response to the 2016 San Pablito Market fireworks explosion that occurred in Tultepec on December 20, 2016, Ochoa announced he had given the 1.2 million pesos to the UNAM Foundation and the Michou and Mau Foundation, which specializes in the rehabilitation of children with severe burns.[10]
Enrique Ochoa Reza settlement agreement scandal
In September 2016, it was reported by Pablo Gomez from Aristegui Noticias, that Enrique Ochoa Reza, who had stepped down two months earlier as head of the commission after being selected leader of his party, had received $1,206,000.00 pesos as a settlement agreement, despite voluntarily resigning his position. Furthermore, Ochoa Reza stayed on the commission's top job for only two years and 155 days, while the "Manual de Trabajo de Servidores Publicos de Mando la CFE" (the regulation concerning high-ranking positions in the CFE) clearly stipulates that settlements can only apply after a minimum three years on the job, and only to those individuals whose retirement is not voluntary. The payment probably constituted a violation of the Mexican Constitution's Article 127 as well, which prohibits settlements of this nature in favour of state-owned corporations' employees (with few exceptions).[9] Despite the media and popular backlash, Ochoa maintained the settlement agreement was legal. Two months later, in response to the 2016 San Pablito Market fireworks explosion that occurred in Tultepec on December 20, 2016, Ochoa announced he had given the 1.2 million pesos to the UNAM Foundation and the Michou and Mau Foundation, which specializes in the rehabilitation of children with severe burns.[10]
2020 blackout
Millions of people in Mexico City, State of Mexico, Nuevo León, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Sinaloa, Yucatán, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, Oaxaca, Veracruz, and other states were left without electricity for several hours during a blackout that began at 2:29 p.m. CST on December 28, 2020; restoration of service began twenty-three minutes later and was completely restored by 4:12 p.m. The Centro Nacional de Control de Energía ("National Center for Energy Control, CENACE) said the blackout was due to an “imbalance in the National Interconnected System between the load and the power generation causing a loss of approximately 7,500 MW” and that automatic protection schemes were activated in order to avoid a greater risk due to the incident in the system.[11] Manuel Bartlett, director of CFE, and Carlos Meléndez, general director of CENACE, said that there was no damage to the national electricity system, nor there was any economic loss due to the blackout.[12]
CFE reported on December 30 that the blackout was caused by a fire in 30 ha of grasslands in the municipality of Padilla, Tamaulipas.[13] However, the Tamaulipas State Civil Protection Coordination rejected the document presented by the CFE, saying the document was falsified,[14]
February 2021 winter storm
The February 13–17, 2021 North American winter storm caused blackouts in Texas and northern Mexico and cost at least three dozen lives in Mexico and the United States. 5.9 million users were directly affected users in Nuevo León, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and Chihuahua along the Texas border and users in Aguascalientes, Colima, State of México, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, and Zacatecas were indirectly affected by rolling blackouts.[17] Rocío Nahle García, Secretary of Energy, asked the populace to save energy,[18] and AMLO announced that Mexico would increase the use of oil and coal to produce electricity as well as purchase three shiploads of natural gas to deal with power shortages. He also warned that periodic local outages would continue through February 21.[19] 100% of power was restored by the afternoon of February 17.[17]
