Mexico Official Sacked over Daughter's Cafe Ruckus
The head of Mexico's consumer protection agency was fired Wednesday after a scandal erupted over his daughter's bid to close a restaurant that denied her the table she wanted.
President Enrique Pena Nieto sacked Humberto Benitez, chief of the Federal Consumer Prosecutor's Office (Profeco), because the case had "damaged the image and prestige of the institution," said Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong.
The restaurant ruckus triggered a social media campaign against Benitez and his daughter, with Twitter users denouncing the incident as the latest example of the sense of entitlement of Mexico's rich and powerful.
Andrea Benitez called in Profeco inspectors to shut down the Maximo Bistrot in Mexico City's trendy Roma district on April 26 after she was unable to get the table she wanted. She drew the scorn of Twitter users, who spread word of the incident with the hashtag #LadyProfeco.
Two days later, Pena Nieto ordered an investigation led by a government watchdog agency that triggered the temporary suspension of four Profeco officials.
However, Osorio Chong said the probe concluded that Benitez did not order or participate in the inspection of Maximo Bistrot.
He said Benitez, a veteran of Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), was fired to prevent Profeco's authority and efficiency from being undermined.
Source: Agence France Presse
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