Latinnews Archive
Mexico & Nafta - 9 June 1998
El Divino extradited;But treated lightly
The Spanish government approved the extradition to Mexico of the banker Angel Isidoro Rodriguez Saez, alias El Divino, on 22 May. He was back in Mexico, but not in custody, on 2 June. Rodriguez Saez is wanted on four counts: two of breaking the law covering institutional credit and one each of tax evasion and breaking the securities market law.
Rodriguez Saez was president of Asemex-Banpais conglomerate. The most important of the accusations against him is that he ordered the bank to carry out a series of operations which benefited him personally. These deals cost the bank US $ 12.4m. The second main charge against him is that in 1994 he ordered the stockbrokerage that he controlled, Mexival Banpais, to sell to a specified list of clients illegal options. This cost the group US $ 77m. These two deals led to the collapse of the group and forced the government to take it over in 1996. Rodriguez Saez had bought the group in the bank privatisation of 1992.
Kid gloves. Rodriguez Saez did everything he could to avoid being caught in Spain. He even dived off his yacht in lbiza to try and escape the police. Yet he has been treated gingerly by the Mexican authorities. He is not in prison and he has merely been invited to testify before magistrates.
Rodriguez Saez's lawyer, Jose Luis Nassar Daw, said that his client only had to give written evidence and he was on bail of only 200,000 pesos (US $ 22,000).
Nasser Daw pointed out the penalties for what Rodriguez Saez had been accused of doing were moderate. He noted that banking fraud, under the current legislation, was not treated as a serious crime.
Altogether Rodriguez Saez faces charges that he took part in a fraud worth 200m pesos.
* Oil: The government announced that it would cut its oil exports by a further 100,000bpd from the beginning of June. This will bring the country's export volume down to 1.64m bpd. Mexico's crude oil production is 3.1m bpd and its total hydrocarbon production is just over 3.56m bpd.
The Mexican government noted that although its ceiling under the Riyadh agreement was 1.74m bpd of oil it had in fact only exported 1.67m bpd in April. Saudi Arabia will cut exports by 225,000bpd and Venezuela by 125,000bpd.
Return to top