After being accused of fuel theft, SME denounces coup plot

PUEBLA, Pue., (apro) .- After being accused of allegedly committing electricity theft at its facilities to mine cryptocurrencies, the Mexican Union of Electricians (SME) issued an open letter in which it asserts that a coup is being prepared to sabotage its internal leadership renewal process.

"We denounce with full responsibility the existence of a political conspiracy of a coup nature, aimed at deliberately sabotaging the democratic electoral process of the Mexican Union of Electricians (SME) that is underway," accuses the letter addressed to the public, unions, the Ministries of Labor and Security and Citizen Protection, as well as the Attorney General's Office (FGR).

Rosendo Flores, Mario Benítez, and Ramón Pacheco, members of the Broad Unity Front (FAU), are accused of attempting to register a slate in the process to appoint a new union leadership that does not meet the statutory and legal requirements established by the Federal Labor Law.

"...acting with premeditation and with the purpose of generating a conflict at the time of being rejected by the Electoral Commission," the SME document states.

"Their attempted irregular registration isn't due to error or negligence; it's a deliberate act of provocation. By not being able to legally register their "ghost payroll," they are seeking to victimize themselves in the eyes of the public and the authorities, criminalize our union leadership, and at the same time provoke a climate of tension and confrontation that could lead to acts of violence that serve as justification for state intervention."

He claims that this group is actually a shock group trying to break into the SME facilities and maintains that he has documentary evidence (audio and video) of this alleged conspiracy.

"We are, therefore, facing a political maneuver of a boorish, coup-like, and violent nature that relies on chaos to sabotage our organization's democratic electoral process," he added.

Therefore, the SME asked labor authorities not to give in to "political pressure" disguised as "democratic demands" and the media and public opinion not to "be manipulated by disinformation campaigns or forced victimization."

Through its social media, the SME has published various statements in which representatives from unions such as the Independent Workers in Health Sciences Research; the Workers in Service to the Judiciary of Morelos; the Mexico City Passenger Transport Union; and others express their solidarity with the public denunciation.

It should be noted that members of the FAU are considered dissidents of Martín Esparza, leader of the SME, and for years have filed a series of complaints regarding the use of union facilities for various businesses that allegedly enriched the union's leadership.

In its 22nd edition, Proceso reported that in January of this year, a CFE operation, guarded by federal forces, detected the theft of electricity from SME facilities in Nuevo Necaxa, Puebla, which was allegedly being used for cryptocurrency mining.

FAU members have also presented evidence that this electricity theft, also known as "electrical huachicoleo," is being practiced at other SME facilities in states such as Hidalgo and the State of Mexico.

The former electricians asked the Institute for the Administration and Appraisal of National Assets (Indaabin) to investigate the use the SME is giving to the properties it was given by Enrique Peña Nieto's government in 2015, as part of an agreement for the union to drop labor lawsuits filed against the federal government for the dissolution of Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LyFC).