Los Angeles: Last November, Mexico’s first lady Angelica Rivera gave a bravura performance in a televised address to the nation. The former soap opera star vowed to sell a $7 million (Dh25 million) mansion she had bought from a key government contractor, in an attempt to end a corruption scandal that had rocked the government of her husband President Enrique Pena Nieto.
“I have nothing to hide,” she declared. “I don’t want this to continue to be a pretext to offend or defame my family.” But it seems Miss Rivera is having problems parting with the luxurious home, nicknamed “The White House”. Eight months have passed and it has yet to be put on the market. The revelation will lead to more controversy for Pena Nieto, and his glamorous wife.
Rivera, 46, once one of Mexico’s most famous television actresses, is already facing a backlash over her penchant for designer clothes and far-flung holidays, and her ownership of a multimillion dollar apartment in Miami. The six-bedroom home that has caused Rivera the most trouble is in Mexico City’s most exclusive neighbourhood. It was built by Mexican architect Miguel Angel Aragones as a series of white cubes with marble floors. It is owned by Ingenieria Inmobiliaria del Centro, a subsidiary of Grupo Higa, a key government construction contractor. The company and its subsidiaries had previously won $652 million in contracts in Mexico State when Nieto was governor there. Rivera has said she paid for the house with her own money from acting, and a $4 million loan from Ingenieria Inmobiliaria del Centro, which was to be paid back over eight years at a rate of 9 per cent.
National Public Radio in America recently obtained all the publicly available documents relating to the house and found it had still not been sold. A spokesman for the president subsequently confirmed that. However, the spokesman said Rivera was simply waiting until the end of an investigation into the scandal before selling it.
