A local businessman is running for the Mexican Senate on a left-wing ticket after spending three years trying to clear his name in the wake of an unsubstantiated allegation by the U.S. Treasury Department that he had supplied materials and assistance in the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine.
Carlos Lomeli Bolanos, owner of the pharmaceutical distribution company Laboratorios Lomedic, says both he and his firm have been cleared of any wrongdoing following an exhaustive investigation by U.S. and Mexican authorities that scrutinized the past ten years of his life.
In 2008 Lomeli found himself on the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s list of “Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons” accused of selling key supplies, especially pseudoephedrine, to members of the Amezcua Contreras drug trafficking gang, also known as the Colima Cartel.
Lomeli says the investigation of both his company’s and his own personal transactions uncovered no evidence of illicit enrichment. The OFAC subsequently removed his name from its list of blocked persons.
“I have paid the price of not being part of the elite, of the mafias that share (the spoils of) the country,” he told La Jornada newspaper last month.
A supporter of left-wing presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in 2006, Lomeli says that real change in Mexico can only come from the left. “The people deserve to try out another form of politics.”Lomeli calls himself a non conformist and wants to do his part to move his country forward. “We must encourage a new generation of triumphant Mexicans.”
Lomeli also says the PRI and PAN models of social development are “obsolete.” Despite achieving macroeconomic stability, social decomposition has taken hold of Mexico during 12 years of PAN rule, he says. “The right had its chance and wasted it.”
Lomeli will represent the Movimiento Progresista, formed by the Moviemiento Ciudadano, Partido del Trabajo and the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (PRD).
He has promised to donate half his salary as a senator to local charities if elected in July.
Aged 52 and Guadalajara-born and educated, Lomeli graduated in medicine from the University of Guadalajara (UdG) and started a medicine and medical supplies distribution company in 1998. In less than a decade, Lomedic (Logistica Medica de Distribucion Comercial) has mushroomed into a large company, with an annual turnover of 300 million dollars and 500 employees.
In recent years Lomedic signed big contracts to be the main supplier of medicines for the Seguro Popular health programs in Jalisco, Nayarit and the Federal District (Mexico City).
On his campaign website (www.lomelituvoz.com), Lomeli boasts that his efficient delivery system cuts inventory carrying costs for government agencies by 45 percent.