Sheinbaum links Somos México to electoral contracting corruption network, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico): Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo linked a corruption scheme in electoral contracts to Somos México, the party led by Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo, saying Juan Carlos Padilla Aguilar, a former boss of one of the investigated businessmen, took part in the organization alongside former National Electoral Institute (INE) president Lorenzo Córdova Vianello.
The president said Padilla Aguilar brought the Hernández Casillas brothers into public service, and that their companies obtained electoral contracts worth more than 2,740 million pesos between 2015 and 2025, according to an investigation presented by the federal government. She said the network strengthened while Córdova presided over the INE General Council, the body responsible for appointing state electoral councillors.
“So where do these contractors come from? From there.
Where do these contractors return? There.
Where do these contractors become strong? From 2014 to 2023, with that INE General Council,” she said.
Sheinbaum said Padilla Aguilar worked in PRI governments and was a superior of José Alfredo Hernández Casillas at the Secretariat of the Interior. He later took part in political organizations linked to Acosta Naranjo before joining Somos México.
“And, oh, surprise! Today he is one of the most prominent members of the Somos party.
Whose is the Somos party? Lorenzo Córdova’s, and all of them linked to Acosta,” she said.
The president questioned Córdova’s distancing from contracts awarded by local electoral public bodies (OPLE), noting that since the 2014 reform the INE General Council assumed the power to appoint their councillors.
According to the investigation presented by Secretary of Anticorruption and Good Government Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez, the relationship between Padilla Aguilar and the Hernández Casillas brothers dates back to the 1980s. José Alfredo worked as Padilla Aguilar’s private secretary at the National Population and Personal Identification Registry of the Secretariat of the Interior.
The government presentation said that in 1989 Padilla Aguilar was named general secretary of the Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional (Cisen) and brought Hernández Casillas with him, while his brother Raymundo Francisco joined the investigations area. Buenrostro said Padilla Aguilar later headed the State of Mexico Secretariat of Urban Development and Public Works under PRI governor Ignacio Pichardo Pagaza, from 1989 to 1993.
The official explained that the Hernández Casillas family left public service and began businesses producing and marketing electoral materials. According to the investigation, by 1999 Cartonera Plástica, a company linked to José Alfredo Hernández Casillas, was already an electoral supplier in the State of Mexico.
Buenrostro recalled that in 2005 the company obtained a contract worth 63 million 700 thousand pesos from the state electoral institute. Allegations of irregularities and bribery in that award triggered a scandal that ended with the resignation of seven electoral councillors, she said.
The government presentation also said that in April 2017, then Secretary of the Interior Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong named Padilla Aguilar regional delegate of that department for six states. Five years later, Padilla Aguilar led activities in the State of Mexico of the Frente Cívico Nacional, an organization promoted, among others, by Acosta Naranjo and Emilio Álvarez Icaza Longoria.
The government investigation identified that movement as a precursor of Somos México, a national political party that obtained its registration in June 2026 and brought together former party leaders and former electoral officials. According to Buenrostro, Padilla Aguilar participated in that organization, which also included Córdova, Marco Antonio Baños Martínez and Edmundo Jacobo Molina.
The presentation identified Córdova as a member of the Citizen Advisory Council; Baños as the party’s alternate representative before the INE; and Jacobo Molina as head of its Center for Political Training and Professionalization.
The anticorruption secretary said that between 2015 and 2023 companies linked to the Hernández Casillas family obtained contracts worth 2,094 million pesos with 23 of the 32 state electoral bodies. Between 2024 and 2025, the investigated companies obtained another 646 million 300 thousand pesos through contracts with 15 local bodies, according to figures presented by the official.
Buenrostro said the companies allegedly pretended to compete against each other in tenders, used front persons and, in some cases, lacked infrastructure, employees and operating capacity. She also described possible money-laundering operations and links to invoice-mill companies as part of the irregularities identified in the government investigation.
Sheinbaum said the scheme did not begin with Guadalupe Taddei Zavala, recalling that Taddei was named in 2014 head of Sonora’s electoral body by the General Council led by Córdova. The president said that in 2023 Taddei reached the INE presidency through a lottery in the Chamber of Deputies after political forces failed to reach the majority required to elect her.
The president argued that investigations should cover the years in which, by her account, the contracts were consolidated, rather than focusing solely on Taddei’s administration.
“So where does all this mess come from? This electoral mafia did not arise with Taddei.
No one defends her; if she committed an illegal act, the Superior Audit Office and the Prosecutor’s Office must look into it, along with anyone who participated in the INE structure, but it did not begin there,” she said.
Sheinbaum said the Superior Audit Office of the Federation and the Attorney General’s Office would determine responsibilities for the contracts, while the Financial Intelligence Unit investigates the operations of the companies involved.
