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Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico's President Warns Party, 'No One Is Untouchable'

Mexico's President Warns Party: 'No One Is Untouchable'
Reuters
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Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto exits the stage after delivering a speech at the National Palace where he signed into law on new education reform, in Mexico City, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. The law which was approved by Congress in December, calls for creation of a professional system for hiring, evaluating and promoting teachers without the "discretionary criteria" currently used in a system where teaching positions are often bought or inherited. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)

MEXICO CITY, March 3 (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Sunday sounded a warning shot to his ruling party over corruption, saying no one is above the law as he tries to tackle the graft that has blighted its reputation in the past.

Speaking just days after the head of Mexico's powerful teachers' union was arrested on charges of embezzling around $200 million, Pena Nieto vowed a new era of transparency at a congress attended by some 4,200 members of his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

"There are no untouchable interests," said Pena Nieto, who pledged to break with the party's past reputation for shady deals and patronage when he won the presidency last year. "The only interest I will protect is the national interest."

Political analysts say the arrest of union leader Elba Esther Gordillo, herself a former PRI grandee, was a warning to any politicians or labor bosses involved in corruption.

However, the incident also raised fears that the PRI may be returning to past tactics of squashing dissent. Gordillo left the PRI several years ago and had opposed a new law being pushed by Pena Nieto to overhaul Mexico's education system.

The PRI had become a byword for corrupt and often authoritarian rule by the time it was voted out of office in 2000 after a 71 years in power.

Pena Nieto, who is seeking to push through a raft of economic reforms in a bid to modernize the economy and boost growth, campaigned on a promise of a new PRI.

The party has updated its manifesto to include measures to foster transparency, including free access to information, which party members say applies in particular to economic issues.

"Today we are a more transparent party, open to the scrutiny of the people and being held to account," Pena Nieto said. "Today the PRI has an instrument to distance itself from and reject those who are not up to the ethical standards of our party."

"Let us demonstrate through our attitude, our voice, our actions that we are a new generation of the PRI." (Reporting by Simon Gardner; Editing by Kieran Murray and Christopher Wilson)

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Before You Go

Mexico City's Makeover
(01 of09)
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In this photo taken on Dec. 13, 2012, young men play catch with flying rings at the Glorieta de Insurgentes roundabout and metro station in Mexico City. When the plaza was built in 1969, the city's top priority was moving an onslaught of cars and people from one point to another. The circular plaza is below ground to let pedestrians walk under busy thoroughfares to catch their trains or buses or to just hang out. Urban designers are seeking to transform the roundabout into something with the glitzy excitement of Times Square or Londonís Piccadilly Circus. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini) (credit:AP)
(02 of09)
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In this photo taken on Sept. 27, 2012, two police talk in the plaza of the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception of Tlaxcoaque in downtown Mexico City. The city has installed multi-colored fountains that light up at night and replaced a parking lot with a larger plaza for pedestrians at the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception of Tlaxcoaque. An ambitious, multimillion-dollar program by Mexico's City's government to beautify public spaces is winning praise from urban planners and many residents. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) (credit:AP)
(03 of09)
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In this photo taken on Sept. 27, 2012, a man walks under a popular bridge where the city made way for a taco joint and playground, near the hip neighborhood of Condesa, in Mexico City. The government is trying to transform one of the world's largest cities by beautifying public spaces, parks and monuments buried beneath a sea of honking cars, street hawkers, billboards and grime following decades of dizzying urban growth. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) (credit:AP)
(04 of09)
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A dancer shows off his moves at the Alameda Central in Mexico City, Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2012. Made iconic in the Diego Rivera mural "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda," city officials have cleared the swarms of vendors and remodeled the historic plaza. Mexico City's government is trying to transform one of the world's largest cities by beautifying public spaces, parks and monuments buried beneath a sea of honking cars, street hawkers, billboards and grime following decades of dizzying urban growth. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini) (credit:AP)
(05 of09)
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Pedestrians stand in front of the Arch of the Revolution monument in Mexico City, Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. The once-neglected plaza with an Arc de Triumph-style monument to Mexico's 1910 revolution has been remade from a homeless encampment to a place where families visit and children run through spurts of water gushing out of the pavement. The copper dome of what started out as the congressional rotunda is newly polished and gleaming. Mexico City's government is trying to transform one of the world's largest cities by beautifying public spaces, parks and monuments. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini) (credit:AP)
(06 of09)
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Angy Saraui, 2, holds her toy pony as she walks in front a fountain at Alameda Central in Mexico City, Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. Made iconic in the Diego Rivera mural ìDream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda,î some of the park's concrete sidewalks were replaced by marble, and makeshift vendor stands were kicked out. Mexico City's government is trying to transform one of the world's largest cities by beautifying public spaces, parks and monuments buried beneath a sea of honking cars, street hawkers, billboards and grime following decades of dizzying urban growth. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini) (credit:AP)
(07 of09)
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A child skips along a walkway in Alameda Central in Mexico City, Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. Made iconic in the Diego Rivera mural Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda, some of the plaza's concrete sidewalks were replaced by marble, and makeshift vendor stands were kicked out. An ambitious, multimillion-dollar program to beautify public spaces by Mexico City's government is winning praise from urban planners and many residents. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini) (credit:AP)
(08 of09)
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A couple occupy a bench in Alameda Central in Mexico City, Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. Instead of a motley patchwork of folding tables and tarps, the newly opened park is a sea of greenery and calm in the midst of racing traffic. Mexico City's government is trying to transform one of the world's largest cities by beautifying public spaces, parks and monuments buried beneath a sea of honking cars, street hawkers, billboards and grime following decades of dizzying urban growth. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini) (credit:AP)
Alternative Fuel(09 of09)
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In this Nov. 8, 2012 photo, used tires are brought in to the kiln area via conveyor and are fed into the kiln, background, at the CEMEX plant in Louisville, Ky. Energy from incinerated tires is powering the southwestern Jefferson County plant owned by the Mexico-based company, which produces, distributes and sells cement and ready-mix concrete and related building materials in as many as 50 countries. (AP Photo/The Courier-Journal, Michael Clevenger) (credit:AP)
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