Mayolo López / Reform Agency
Tuesday, January 24, 2023 | 23:00
The three senators who traveled to Egypt to participate in COP27 with a plane ticket and per diem for almost 160,000 pesos, without having gone to the headquarters of the work, were notified by Foreign Relations –one month before the opening of the summit climate change– who were not accredited to participate.
In a reply, senators Geovanna Bañuelos, Sasil de León and Raúl Paz Alonzo threw the ball at the Political Coordination Board of the upper house of responsibility for not having been accredited before the Summit.
“It is important to clarify that we were never notified by the Political Coordination Board that we were not duly accredited for this event. If so, said governing body would not have authorized the corresponding procedures and resources for our participation in this international delegation,” they argued.
However, according to the letters that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent them, the legislators were aware that they would not be able to count on the necessary accreditation to even enter the Summit venue, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
“… I would like to inform you that, due to the fact that the dates established by the United Nations Organization for the accreditation process for COP27 have already ended, unfortunately it will not be possible to integrate you into said delegation”, reads the letter sent both Sasil and Geovanna as well as Senator Raúl Paz Alonso.
The three trades are dated October 4, 2022. The COP took place from November 6 to 18.
After senators Juan Zepeda and Emilio Álvarez Icaza urged Sasil de León, Geovanna Bañuelos and Raúl Paz to return their travel expenses if they could not prove that they had participated in the COP, it was noted in the Upper House that the internal comptroller and the Superior Audit of the Federation will have to review that the resources of the paid plane ticket and the per diem are reinstated.
Eventually, these bodies could claim the discount to the senators’ diet for the days they were absent without justification for not being able to participate in COP27.
