UPDATE 1-Powerful Mexican oil workers' union boss steps down -local media

The longtime head of Mexico's powerful oil workers union, Carlos Romero Deschamps, has resigned a day after the president hinted he should step down to face allegations of wrongdoing, Mexican media reported on Wednesday.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador this week said Romero Deschamps was under investigation, and on Wednesday he revealed the union boss could face prosecution over two unspecified complaints filed against him. Earlier this year, sources said the attorney general's office had accused Romero Deschamps and several relatives of illicit enrichment and money laundering, charges he has denied.

The oil workers union did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and has not yet issued any statement following a closed-door meeting held earlier on Wednesday at its Mexico City headquarters and attended by all of its 36 sections. Lopez Obrador on Tuesday suggested that Romero Deschamps might consider quitting to address the allegations.

Romero Deschamps, a former senator with the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for most of the past century, has led the oil workers union since 1993. His term is due to end in 2024. Past media reports of the lavish lifestyle of Romero Deschamps and his family, which included trips on private jets and the purchase of a yacht and luxury sports cars, despite his modest official salary, have stoked accusations of corruption.

Lopez Obrador, who was himself a PRI member until the late 1980s, won office by a landslide in 2018 after years of campaigning against public sector corruption. The veteran leftist has promised to boost the fortunes of the highly-indebted national oil company Pemex, which has suffered more than a dozen years of declining oil output, at a time when the company's payroll continued to rise.

For decades Pemex has been dogged with accusations that it is a hotbed for graft, kickbacks and other illicit schemes. Most of Pemex's employees are members of the oil workers union. Manuel Limon Hernandez, a close confidant of Romero Deschamps, was picked to succeed him, according to the media reports, which cited sources inside the union.

Limon Hernandez, who served as the union's treasurer for over a decade up until last year, is also a federal congressman with the PRI representing the oil-rich state of Veracruz.