MEXICO CITY– Mexico issued an arrest warrant for a former chief of Mexican oil company Pemex, government-owned media said yesterday, in the first blow against ex-President Enrique Pena Nieto’s inner circle since a new government took office promising to clean up politics. Citing sources at the attorney general’s office, Mexico news agency Notimex said a judge had ordered the arrest of Emilio Lozoya, who headed Pemex from 2012 to 2016.

A Mexican security source said the reports were accurate. The attorney general’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Lozoya’s lawyer Javier Coello said he had not received any official notification of an arrest warrant. Coello said that after seeing various media reports on the subject he filed an injunction on behalf of Lozoya to get to the bottom of the matter, and requested to be officially notified of whether the warrant exists. “Once the defense verifies if there is actually an arrest warrant, and it knows the contents of the warrant, it will be able to take a legal position to execute an adequate defense,” Coello said in a statement.(Reuters)…[+]