Mexico City political boss resigns amid media reports that he hired party workers for sex

MEXICO CITY – The local political chief for Mexico’s ruling party in the capital resigned following reports that his office hired women to have sex with him and placed them on party payrolls, party officials announced Thursday.

Cuauhtemoc Gutierrez had taken a leave of absence as the Mexico City leader of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in order to not obstruct an investigation.

PRI representative Manuel Andrade said that Gutierrez resigned his post this week and that a replacement has already been named.

MVS radio station in April aired a story by an undercover reporter who recorded recruiters telling potential hires they would have to have sex with Gutierrez if given a job as secretaries or receptionists.

The report alleged he recruited women for the positions through newspaper ads for “women to work in government offices.”

Gutierrez has called the report “absolutely false.”

The PRI has made a big comeback nationwide since losing its 71-year hold on the presidency in 2000, regaining the nation’s top post in 2012, but Mexico City remains a weak point for the party. The capital’s mayoralty has been held by the leftist Democratic Revolution Party since 1997.