A year long of intense investigations, hearings, and negotiations occurred in 2002, but no one was prosecuted by the Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) in the end.
[1] President Lázaro Cárdenas nationalized the oil industry in Mexico in 1938 as a result of dispute between the labor union and the petroleum companies.
When the Mexican Petroleum Workers Union's (STPRM) was finally formed in 1935, they demanded fair working conditions and increased wages, which was supported by President Cárdenas' recommendation to bring the issue to the arbitration board.
Pemex is significantly affected by the Mexican constitution and other laws, which prevents it from pursuing domestic joint ventures or other equity related contracts that threaten Mexico’s patrimony.
Its inability to exercise various economic strategies under a government that does not have a strong hold of the company has turned it into “an instrument for the state’s financial engineering”.
The election was a politically significant moment in history due to the victory of Vicente Fox from the National Action Party (PAN) and since it marked the independence of the congress from the PRI.
Most notably, the director or Pemex, Rogelio Montemayor Seguy, allegedly transferred $127 million to Labastida and other campaigns by the PRI.
His first few years in office were high in public profile due to all the news related to allegations of corruption followed by his pledge to pursue it.
The high-ranking officials that were allegedly found guilty include Rogelio Montemayor, and labor leader Senator Carlos Romero Deschamps of the PRI party.
In September 2002, the government issued arrest warrants against Montemayor, union treasurer and federal deputy Ricardo Aldana Prieto, and Romero Deschamps.
Money laundering charges against officials of STPRM were soon withdrawn, and in July 2003, the PGR special unit claimed that the illegal source of the funds were unidentified due to insufficient evidence.
Three other individuals, including a government official and a PEMEX employee, were pardoned after being accused of mishandling half of the funds diverted to the campaign.
An article published on September 27, 2002, titled 'PRI, corresponsable del Pemexgate: Robles' openly discusses the PRD's report on diverted funds from Pemex to Labastida, and calls for further investigations.
Rosario Robles Berlanga, the national leader of the PRD, says, "Este asunto no se queda solamente en los líderes petroleros, ni tampoco en quienes estaban al frente de la paraestatal en ese momento, sino también tiene que ir a fondo hacia la investigación de la campaña presidencial del PRI" ("This issue is not only left to the Pemex officials, nor to those who were in charge of the state at that time, but also has to go deep into the investigation of the presidential campaign of the PRI").