Sheinbaum electoral contracts network Hernández Casillas brothers, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico City): Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo presented an investigation by the Secretariat of Anticorruption and Good Government that identifies an alleged network of electoral contracts linked to brothers José Alfredo and Raymundo Hernández Casillas. Their companies reportedly obtained contracts worth more than 2.74 billion pesos between 2015 and 2025.
During her morning press conference on Thursday, November 5, the president said the group’s background dates back more than two decades and that its operations strengthened during the presidency of Lorenzo Córdova Vianello at the National Electoral Institute (INE), from 2014 to 2023. Secretary Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez said the investigation was built from a review of open sources.
According to the figures presented, between 2015 and 2023, 23 of the 32 Local Electoral Public Bodies (OPLE) awarded contracts totaling 2.094 billion pesos to companies linked to the brothers. Between 2024 and 2025, the same corporate structure obtained another 646.3 million pesos through contracts with 15 local electoral bodies.
The official detailed that the brothers’ background goes back to 1983 and 1988, when they worked at the National Population and Personal Identification Registry (RENAPO). The company Cartonera Plástica was established in 1988, and the first electoral contracting antecedent cited was in 1999, when the firm supplied the State of Mexico.
In 2005, the company obtained a contract for 63.7 million pesos with the State of Mexico Electoral Institute for electoral materials. According to the information presented, irregularities and alleged bribery complaints arose during that period, leading to the resignation of seven electoral councilors.
Buenrostro Sánchez said that between 2012 and 2013 the brothers expanded their operations through various companies and contracts with electoral bodies in Jalisco, Tabasco, Guerrero, Quintana Roo, Zacatecas and Hidalgo. She noted that the 2014 electoral reform transferred the appointment of local electoral councilors from state congresses to the INE General Council, and that contracting by the investigated companies increased in the following years.
Sheinbaum linked the group’s background to members of SOMOS, an organization that includes former electoral officials, among them Lorenzo Córdova, Marco Antonio Baños and Edmundo Jacobo Molina. The president also said former RENAPO and CISEN official Juan Carlos Padilla Aguilar, who worked with the brothers, currently participates in the same political organization.
The president asked that contracts awarded under different INE administrations, including that of Guadalupe Taddei, be investigated. She said any possible administrative or criminal liability must be determined by the competent authorities, stating that the Superior Audit of the Federation and the Attorney General’s Office should review the matter.
Sheinbaum also announced that next week she will present a decree to strengthen Talleres Gráficos de México, a state-owned company involved in producing electoral documentation and materials. The proposal would expand its board to include other agencies and academic institutions and add the Superior Audit of the Federation as an observer.
Buenrostro Sánchez said the Superior Audit of the Federation is responsible for reviewing possible irregularities in INE and local electoral body contracts and, where sufficient evidence exists, filing complaints with the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) or the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF). The official also said the government is studying mechanisms to prevent collusion among suppliers.
The allegations stem from a government investigation based on public information and do not by themselves constitute a judicial determination of responsibility against the individuals or companies named.
