"I just want to say that I'm planning to hand over a file showing Felipe's brother-in-law, his troublesome brother-in-law, has a company that works for the government," said Lopez Obrador, adding that the firm received energy contracts while Calderon was Fox's energy secretary and didn't pay taxes on $2.5 billion in company revenue.
Calderon denied the charge, as well as having engaged in any wrongdoing during his eight-month stint in Fox's Cabinet. Repeated denials in the days that followed -- by Calderon and his brother-in-law, Diego Zavala -- failed to clear the air and have put the Calderon campaign on the defensive.
"You couldn't have asked more from a candidate in a debate," Pardinas said. "Create a good image and then throw some mud without getting your hands dirty."
Zavala said his company had renewed software contracts with Mexico's national oil company, Pemex, while Calderon served as energy secretary.
His firm, Hildebrando, purchased a company holding the contracts a month after Calderon took office in September 2003. The contracts were renewed in November.
Both men said there was nothing untoward about the transaction, and Calderon last week demanded that Lopez Obrador show proof of wrongdoing.
Campaigners for Lopez Obrador delivered a cardboard box of papers Friday to Calderon headquarters in a widely covered publicity stunt to back up the claim.
But the joke here is that the 400 pages of so-called proof probably mean they have none. A single incriminating page with Calderon's signature could send him to prison, but nothing of the sort has been delivered to federal prosecutors.
The brother-in-law bomb was dropped in front of 13 million TV viewers, only days before Mexico's attention was diverted by soccer's World Cup and a first-game victory Sunday by the national team.
TV watchers have since had dozens of chances to see Lopez Obrador repeat the accusations in slick ads, which all mention the "troublesome" -- \o7incomodo\f7 -- brother-in-law.
The troublesome-relative label was made most famous here in the 1990s in the case of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari's allegedly crooked older brother Raul. It is a phrase that reflects a long-standing belief that those in power share the spoils with relatives.
Federal authorities, meanwhile, are investigating the leak of confidential tax records from Zavala's firm to the Lopez Obrador campaign.
No one expects a resolution before the election. The Mexican judiciary seldom resolves such accusations with dispatch, if ever.
Besides, the issue is not so much corruption.
"This is about revenge," said Dan Lund, a Mexico City pollster.
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Carlos Martinez and Cecilia Sanchez in The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.
