Guadalupe Taddei and Hernández Casillas brothers INE contracts, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico): Amid reports that former National Electoral Institute (INE) council president Guadalupe Taddei had left the country and that the Hernández Casillas brothers, contractors for the electoral body, were in South America, President Claudia Sheinbaum said they appear to still be in national territory.
However, she said the National Migration Institute (INM) must confirm this. “Yes, it seems so,” she replied at the end of her morning press conference at the National Palace, when asked whether the figures involved in the scandals at the electoral body were still in Mexico.
On the possible responsibilities of Taddei, the president said that the Superior Audit Office of the Federation (ASF) and the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) should determine them. “But don’t tell me that these businessmen who did business with the INE were unknown to anyone.
No, of course they knew them,” she said, responding to statements by Lorenzo Córdova, former INE council president.
Córdova acknowledged that during his tenure the institute appointed Taddei to head the electoral body in Sonora and that he knew these companies existed. “And why didn’t they do anything?
And why did they contract more than 2 billion pesos?” Sheinbaum asked.
She extended the criticism to former executive secretary Edmundo Jacobo: “15 years at the INE and don’t tell me he also didn’t know there was a duopoly.” Addressing those who during the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador rallied under the slogan “the INE is not to be touched,” she responded: “The INE does have to be cleaned up. Maybe they said the INE is not to be touched so they could protect all this electoral mafia that was built with them.”
The institution, she stressed, “is an institution that must guarantee the popular will and clean elections.” That cleanup, she said, requires transparency in purchasing. She argued that “it is essential, and the current INE councilors are still in time” to make hiring transparent, especially regarding tenders for the 2027 election.
She also noted that the government will present a decree next week to strengthen Talleres Gráficos de México, where ballots are printed. She further backed the proposed cut of 5 billion pesos to the institute’s budget being prepared by the Chamber of Deputies, describing the INE’s budget proposal as “an inflated budget.”
