2024-04-29 21:04:14
At the center of the controversy in the race for the Head of Government of Mexico City is Morena’s strategy of linking Santiago Taboada, candidate of PAN, PRI and PRD, with the so-called Real Estate Poster, a network of corruption that has shaken local politics, to which President Andrés Manuel López Obrador himself has referred
The case of Real Estate Poster emerged in mid-2021, when the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office detained officials from the Benito Juárez mayor’s office for corruption.
They were accused of providing illegal construction permits in exchange for bribes, thus fueling an operation that moved billions of pesos annually. Morena, who has pointed out Santiago Taboada and other opposition candidates as beneficiaries of this corrupt network.
Taboada, former mayor of Benito Juárezhas vehemently rejected these accusations and has requested the Electoral Institute of Mexico City (IECM) to stop the link between him and the so-called Real Estate Cartel.
His campaign coordinator, Federico Döring, has argued that unfounded accusations cannot be spread in the context of an electoral campaign, pointing out the importance of truthfulness in information and denouncing political manipulation.
Real Estate Cartel
The Attorney General’s Office of Mexico City has revealed the existence of a real estate corruption network in the Benito Juárez mayor’s office, which, by tolerating the construction of surplus apartments, resulted in million-dollar profits for real estate developers.
The institution has indicated that these businessmen, in turn, were able to return the favors by transferring apartments or selling them at auction prices, through transactions involving the names and relatives of public servants in this district.
So far, the CDMX Prosecutor’s Office has obtained more than a dozen arrest warrants against public servants and individuals.
In addition, four abbreviated trials have been concluded with the acceptance of guilt of the accused and reparation for the damage.
illicit acts
According to the head of Government of Mexico City, Martí Batres, when massive construction of extraordinary levels not authorized by law in real estate developments is allowed, the feasibility and availability of water is reduced, the cost of land increases, the cost of housing, the cost of rent and civil protection risks.
“When works are allowed without rhyme or reason, without order, without meeting requirements, without complying with each step, situations occur such as new buildings that collapse with an earthquake or, to refer to a very serious recent case, the drilling of strategic facilities, such as a tunnel of the Metro Collective System, that is what this disorder leads us to,” he warns.
“A cartel is a gang that carries out criminal acts in an organized manner, a real estate cartel is one that carries out illicit acts around tolerances, permissibilities or crooked permits for illegal constructions.”
The most notorious case is that of the so-called Benito Juárez real estate cartel.
Batres has expressed that some of those directly involved, including some of the heads of this real estate cartel, say that this is a legend, that it is a virtual construction, that it is a strategy, that it is a media effect, but that it is not reality.
However, Batres maintains, of the complaints received by the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing and the Government of Mexico City, in a short period of time, a little over a year and a half ago, 130 irregular projects with extra floors were found.
Among them, for example, are the cases of Adolfo Prieto 1224, which had permission for four levels and eight were built.
Avenida Coyoacán 1524, which had permission for four, five were built.
Adolfo Prieto 1743, which had permission for six and nine were built.
Bartolache 1947 and 1949, where four were built and had permission for three.
Mercaderes 68, which had permission for four and six were built.
Batres points out that there are at least 26 officials from the Benito Juárez Mayor’s Office involved with the real estate cartel and about whom various investigations are ongoing.
Furthermore, the four sentenced, high-level officials, not only accepted their responsibility and guilt, but are also paying compensation for the damage.
Some estimate that the Benito Juárez real estate cartel has earned at least one billion pesos by allowing illegal construction or authorizing extra apartments, warns Batres.
Mode of operation
In the modus operandi of this group there are two main lines, one of them is to authorize extra apartments in exchange for obtaining cash or apartments from said constructions.
The investigation carried out by the CDMX Prosecutor’s Office found that the officials in charge of authorizing the constructions had numerous departments in said constructions.
The other line of the modus operandi is the formation of companies formed by officials, real estate companies that act in the real estate market by obtaining the permits that they themselves give for the construction of works.
In some cases, the officials are not directly involved in these companies, but rather their spouses, their partners, their relatives, their siblings, their names, their partners or their subordinate officials.
2024-04-29 21:04:14