US halts financial intelligence to Mexico

The US Treasury has stopped giving financial intelligence to Mexico after confidential information was leaked in a corruption scandal involving Mexico City's mayor, both countries said on Friday.
The US Treasury was upset that Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, tipped to be Mexico's next president, used secret Mexican finance ministry documents to back up claims the government was using corruption allegations to undermine him.
"Strictly on financial issues there's a suspension at this moment," Mexican attorney general Rafael Macedo said on Friday.
The leaked documents, given to the media by leftist Lopez Obrador last week, were based on information given to Mexico by the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which specialises in combating money-laundering.
"The breach of confidential information is a serious matter that the Treasury Department and the US government will not take lightly," spokeswoman Molly Millerwise told Reuters in Washington. "It is critical that we have the utmost confidence in our information-sharing relationship with all foreign governments."
The documents, seen by Reuters, were in relation to Mexico City's finance director, Gustavo Ponce, who disappeared in March with $3 million of city funds and was filmed on lavish gambling trips to Las Vegas.
Most of the documents that the United States shares with Mexico have to do with laundering drug funds. Mexico is a major transit country for drug trafficking to the United States and co-operates with Washington closely on border security.
Mexican Attorney General Macedo said financial intelligence from the United States was crucial to criminal investigations and was "permanent, every day at all times." He said Mexico would try to convince the US Treasury Department "that this case was an exception."
Lopez Obrador, Mexico's most popular politician, testified to federal prosecutors for two hours on Friday about the leak.
Before testifying, the mayor said he would present written proof "that is basically judicial in nature and explains that I did not break the law" by revealing the leaked documents.
Lopez Obrador is a member of the Party of the Democratic Revolution and has built a reputation for honesty. He is an early frontrunner to take over from President Vicente Fox in 2006 elections.