Mexico’s former Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez declined to use the five million pesos ($292,000) offered by the Morena ruling party to those vying for the presidential nomination as they launch their campaigns this week.

Lopez, a close ally of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said in a video on Twitter that Morena has never required public monies to reach Mexicans. “We have never needed public resources or travel expenses to build from below, together with our people,” he wrote in the tweet.

Morena’s national party head Mario Delgado said last week that those competing for the nomination were expected to finance their own campaigns, only to say later that the party would distribute five million pesos to each for logistics and travel.

Lopez, no relation to the president, is competing for Morena’s nomination along with former Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard and former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, among others.

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