A battle over alleged corruption in Mexico's Green Party expanded on Wednesday with new claims of wrongdoing and countercharges that Mexico's government was trying to crush the opposition force.
Green Party leader Jorge Emilio Gonzalez -- who had been videotaped discussing a US$2 million bribe -- said that the administration of President Vicente Fox's Interior Department was orchestrating the attacks because the Green Party could swing the 2006 presidential election to another party.
"The presidential succession is at stake for them," Gonzalez said.
"They are ready to do everything, absolutely everything to maintain power," he said.
Interior Secretary Santiago Creel made a statement later Wednesday calling the claims "absolutely false" and urging Green Party members to solve their differences "in accordance with the law and with respect for political ethics."
"It is essential that all political and social actors in the country avoid having our public lives become a deplorable spectacle of scandals, insults and lies," he said.
Meanwhile, Gonzalez filed a written complaint against the Interior Department in the afternoon with Mexico's National Human Rights Commission.
Green Party dissident Santiago Leon also denied any government link to the allegations against Gonzalez.
Leon made the clandestine videotape of the bribe attempt and released it to news media late Monday as part of an effort to force Gonzalez from leadership of the Green Party.
Nicknamed "Kid Green," Gonzalez was 29 when he took over the Green Party in 2001 from his father, the party founder.
Leon made new allegations on Wednesday, telling a television news program that the Green Party faction in the Mexico City legislature had issued 750,000 pesos (US$67,810) in checks in one month to Gonzalez' housekeeper.
Gonzalez insisted the woman was an assistant accountant for the Greens and later said she worked for a program providing school breakfasts.
``I don't have information about all of the checks issued in the party,'' he said.
The Greens were junior partner in Fox's historic presidential victory in 2000, but later broke away to form alliances with the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which holds the largest bloc in Congress and the largest number of governorships.
PRI leader Roberto Madrazo told reporters on Tuesday that the party was closely following the case and some party leaders called for reconsidering the PRI's alliances with the Greens.
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