Hernández Casillas brothers electoral material contracts Mexico, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico): The career of the Hernández Casillas brothers passed through federal government offices, the Center for Investigation and National Security (CISEN), and later through companies that obtained contracts to supply electoral material in the State of Mexico and other states, according to the Secretariat of Anticorruption and Good Government, which presented an investigation into an alleged collusion network in electoral purchases.
Secretary Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez said the scheme dates back to the late 1980s and strengthened over the years, becoming a network of companies that obtained multimillion-peso contracts from local electoral bodies. One of the officials the brothers were linked to, Juan Carlos Padilla Aguilar, held positions at CISEN and later in the government of the State of Mexico.
Decades later, he coincided in the SOMOS party with former members of the National Electoral Institute (INE), including Lorenzo Córdova.
According to the chronology presented by Buenrostro, between 1983 and 1988 the Hernández Casillas brothers worked at the National Population and Personal Identification Registry (RENAPO), a unit of the Secretariat of the Interior. During that period, José Alfredo Hernández Casillas served as private secretary to Juan Carlos Padilla Aguilar, then director general of the Registry, whom the investigation links to the PRI in the State of Mexico.
Raymundo Hernández Casillas worked in the Financial and Material Resources area starting in 1987.
In 1988, Cartonera Plástica was established, one of the companies that later appeared among suppliers of electoral material. A year later, in 1989, Padilla Aguilar took over the General Secretariat of CISEN and brought José Alfredo in as his private secretary.
That same year, Raymundo joined the Investigations area.
The Anticorruption Secretariat’s presentation places these movements during the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, when Fernando Gutiérrez Barrios headed the Secretariat of the Interior and Jorge Carrillo Olea led CISEN. At that stage, the organization of federal elections was still under the control of the Secretariat of the Interior, before the electoral system gained autonomy.
The document also notes that Juan Carlos Padilla Aguilar was appointed secretary of Urban Development and Public Works of the State of Mexico in 1989, during the government of Ignacio Pichardo Pagaza, who led the state between 1989 and 1993.
Later, in April 2017, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, then Secretary of the Interior, appointed him regional delegate of that department in six states: Aguascalientes, Colima, Jalisco, Michoacán, Querétaro and Zacatecas.
Since 2022, Padilla Aguilar has led the National Civic Front in the State of Mexico, an organization in which, according to the presentation, Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo and Emilio Álvarez Icaza participated. These antecedents are relevant because the investigation also exposed his later political ties with SOMOS members.
In 1992, Formas Finas Fernando Fernández was established, a company the investigation links to Raymundo Francisco Hernández Casillas. Later, in 1999, Cartonera Plástica, associated with José Alfredo Hernández Casillas, began participating as a supplier of electoral material in the State of Mexico.
One episode the secretary highlighted occurred in 2005, when the Electoral Institute of the State of Mexico (IEEM) awarded Cartonera Plástica a contract worth 63.7 million pesos to supply electoral material. The award was surrounded by complaints of alleged irregularities and bribery.
According to the federal government’s explanation, the scandal led to the resignation of seven electoral councillors.
Business expansion accelerated between 2012 and 2013, when the brothers diversified their companies and began obtaining contracts with electoral bodies in states including Jalisco, Tabasco, Guerrero, Quintana Roo, Zacatecas and Hidalgo.
An institutional change in 2014 altered the context of these contracts. With the electoral reform, the appointment of councillors to the Local Electoral Public Bodies (OPLE) ceased to rest with state congresses and passed to the INE General Council, then presided over by Lorenzo Córdova.
Between 2015 and 2023, 23 of the 32 local electoral bodies awarded contracts totaling 2,094 million pesos to companies linked to the Hernández Casillas brothers. The figure includes companies identified in the presentation, among them Formas Finas y Materiales, Cajas Graf, Seriplast de México, Comercializadora JVLY, Corporativo ZEG and Formas Finas Fernando Fernández.
The breakdown presented by the Anticorruption Secretariat attributes 825.6 million pesos to Formas Finas y Materiales; 751.2 million to Cajas Graf; 380.5 million to Seriplast de México; 101.2 million to Corporativo ZEG and 35.5 million to Formas Finas Fernando Fernández.
Between 2024 and 2025, companies related to the Hernández Casillas brothers obtained contracts worth 646.3 million pesos with 15 of the 32 OPLEs. The breakdown presented by the federal government identifies 234.7 million pesos for Comercializadora JVLY; 181.9 million for Cajas Graf; 123.7 million for Corporativo ZEG and 105.9 million for Formas Finas y Materiales.
Puebla recorded the highest amount, with 129.7 million pesos; Jalisco, 102.2 million; Baja California, 76.6 million; and Oaxaca, 64.9 million.
The information shows that awards to the companies named did not end with the change in the INE presidency.
A central point of the presentation was the alleged mechanism used to compete in tenders. The Anticorruption Secretariat described a network of interrelated companies that, despite presenting themselves as distinct participants, allegedly simulated competition to obtain public contracts.
The scheme presented involves six companies and identifies five practices that should be investigated.
As an example of the alleged use of front persons, the presentation mentions the case of a 96-year-old woman. It also identifies relationships among partners, representatives, attorneys-in-fact and relatives of the various companies.
In addition to the business history, Buenrostro outlined the political ties of Juan Carlos Padilla Aguilar with members of the SOMOS party. Four decades after his time at CISEN and in the State of Mexico government, Padilla Aguilar coincided in that political organization with three figures related to the electoral structure: Marco Antonio Baños, alternate representative of SOMOS before the INE; Edmundo Jacobo Molina, head of the party’s Center for Political Training and Professionalization; and Lorenzo Córdova, a member of its Citizen Advisory Council.
President Claudia Sheinbaum asked that the contracts be investigated and that the acquisition of electoral material be made transparent. She also clarified that it should not be assumed that a person committed an illegality without the competent authorities determining so.
Secretary Buenrostro explained that the INE is an autonomous constitutional body, so its review does not fall directly under her department. The investigation and any possible sanctions must be handled by bodies with authority to audit, investigate administrative offenses or prosecute crimes.
The presentation assigns different tasks to four institutions.
