Mexico’s first lady to sell her stake in mansion at centre of scandal

Mexico’s first lady has said she will sell her interest in a personal home built and still owned by a company that has gained millions in contracts under President Enrique Peña Nieto, in an apparent effort to quell a conflict-of-interest scandal that has surrounded the couple.

Angelica Rivera, a former actor, laid out her earnings as a soap opera star in a video statement posted on her website and explained how she came to build the multimillion-dollar home in Mexico City’s most exclusive neighbourhood.

“I have nothing to hide,” she said, adding at the end of her seven-minute address: “I have taken the decision to sell my interests in the purchase contract of the house.”

Rivera said she did not want the house contract to raise questions about her integrity or that of her family.

Journalist Carmen Aristegui’s website was the first to report that the personal home of the president and first lady was registered under Ingeniería Inmobiliaria del Centro, a subsidiary of Grupo Higa, a key government contractor. The report estimated the value of the house at $7m (£4m).

Days before the story came out, Peña Nieto’s government cancelled a high-speed rail contract that had been granted to the sole bidder, a consortium that included Constructora Teya, another Grupo Higa company.

Rivera said she met Juan Armando Hinojosa, whose family owns Grupo Higa, and began planning the house in 2009, based on her earnings after 25 years with Televisa. She was already dating Peña Nieto, then governor of Mexico state, where Grupo Higa and its affiliates were granted more than $8bn pesos (£377m) in construction projects, according to the Aristegui report.

Rivera said on Tuesday that she bought the house for $4m on an eight-year contract at an interest rate of 9% and had paid about 30% of what she owed.

The couple married in 2010, before Peña Nieto was elected president in 2012.

Speaking earlier in the day, Peña Nieto said reports about the Mexico City mansion had led to “countless versions and falsehoods”.

The Peña Nieto administration has also been under fire for its handling of the disappearance of 43 student teachers. The fate of the students has still not been confirmed, though the attorney general said there was evidence they had been killed and their bodies incinerated. The disappearances have sparked daily protests.

Peña Nieto said that amid the sometimes violent demonstrations, he perceived an “orchestrated effort to destabilise” changes that he is pushing.

He also said he would not let the controversy over the house “cast doubt on the confidence that the majority of Mexicans have given me to lead the country into the future”.