Mexico Official Avoids Ax Over Daughter's Cafe Scene

The head of Mexico's consumer protection agency has avoided the ax despite a scandal over his daughter's attempt to get a restaurant shut down for denying her the table she wanted.

After a probe ordered by President Enrique Pena Nieto, the government announced Thursday that four officials from the Profeco agency would be temporarily suspended over the incident, but that there was no cause to punish its chief, Humberto Benitez.

The anti-corruption public function ministry also opened disciplinary proceedings against civil servants who ordered and participated in the inspection of Maximo Bistrot on April 26.

Benitez said he had never considered stepping down over the incident, denying that he ordered the inspection and insisting that he tried to stop it when he learned his daughter was involved.

"I have offered a public apology," said Benitez, a veteran of Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). "I take responsibility as a father."

Inspectors showed up at the restaurant in Mexico City's trendy Roma district after Benitez's daughter complained about being refused her table of choice.

The brouhaha quickly spread through social media after it was first reported by Reforma newspaper, with Twitter users dubbing the daughter #LadyProfeco and demanding her father's resignation.

The incident was denounced as another example of the sense of entitlement of the rich and powerful in a country with one of biggest income gaps in the world, with almost half the population living in poverty.

Benitez said his agency did not shut down the restaurant in the end and that it only put up signs for alleged irregularities related to the reservations system. He said the owners decided of their own accord to temporarily close it.