Donor of revocation announcements in the Metro is a contractor of CDMX

The person who hired spaces on the screens, screens and wagons of the Mexico City Metro to promote the consultation of revocation of mandate is part of three companies that have been suppliers of the government of Claudia Sheinbaum and have obtained contracts for cleaning and maintenance of public spaces for at least 150.6 million pesos, several of them through unlawful practices of simulation of competition.
Following a complaint from opposition parties, the National Electoral Institute (INE) opened an investigation and detected that the ads were contracted by Luz Alicia Ramos Pineda to the company ISA Corporativo S.A. de C.V. -concessionaire of the advertising spaces in the Metro Collective Transport System- to disseminate messages about the revocation consultation between March 18 and April 6, for an amount of 473 thousand 126 pesos.
Political Animal documented that Ramos Pineda was an official of the capital government in the previous administration and is the legal representative of GP Construcciones S.A. de C.V. and Agrupación Empresarial S.A. de C.V. His brother, José Eduardo Ramos Pineda, is a proxy and administrator of Grupo Benj S.A. de C.V.

In the three social reasons, two other relatives, Delia Gabriela Pineda Mejía and Javier Pineda Cedillo, have positions of representatives, administrators and attorneys, in addition to the fact that the companies share telephone numbers and emails, according to records in supplier registers and dozens of contracting processes reviewed by this means. The tax domiciles of the companies are located in private homes in Mexico City and in an office building that looks unoccupied.
The three companies of the group also obtained contracts for 47.3 million pesos from the mayors Miguel Hidalgo and Cuauhtémoc during the triennium 2018-2021, in which both demarcations were governed by the Morenistas Víctor Hugo Romo and Néstor Núñez, respectively.
In total, GP Construcciones, Agrupación Empresarial and Grupo Benj received 27 contracts by direct award and participated in another 12 bidding processes in the capital government and the two Moreno mayors between 2019 and 2021. This medium was able to establish that at least five contracts for an amount of 22.8 million pesos were obtained in tenders in which there was simulation of competition.

In addition several of the contracts awarded by the Sheinbaum government to this business group have been, precisely, to clean up and remove propaganda in the Metro, the same space where the legal representative hired, through the concessionaire ISA Corporativo, announcements to promote the recall consultation and the figure of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
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Through its social communication address, Political Animal asked Sheinbaum’s administration to rule on whether it considers that there is a conflict of interest in the fact that the legal representative of contractors of his government “donated” spaces to disseminate the consultation of revocation of mandate. 
In a succinct response, the capital government said it does not engage in private political activities and ruled out corruption in the administration.
This was the Sheinbaum government’s response:
“1. With regard to the facts that refer, we state that the City Government does not get involved in issues between private parties or the political activities that any citizen decides to carry out. 
“2. In the Government of Mexico City there is no corruption and no relations of complicity of any kind are established. 
“3. If deemed necessary, it may be reported to the Secretariat of the Office of the Comptroller General for legal follow-up.”
Provider hides links to the INE
The INE corroborated the deployment of propaganda in favor of the consultation of revocation of mandate in screens, screens and wagons of the Metro of the CDMX and initiated an investigation to determine the legality of its hiring.
The ads show the image of President López Obrador accompanied by the phrases “AMLO you are not alone”, “April 10 we are going to vote” and “#QueSigaAMLO”, advertising identical to the one that the electoral referee also detected in spectacular fences, fences and poles of several states of the country and that is attributable to the association Que Siga la Democracia A.C.
“Derived from the investigation carried out by this authority on the occasion of the complaints presented by the political parties and citizens complainants, the existence of propaganda located in the facilities of the Collective Transport System of Mexico City, which seeks to position a position on the revocation of the mandate, that is, seeks to support the President of the Republic in the process of participatory democracy that is underway“, says file ACQyD-INE-58/2022.
The INE requested information from ISA Corporativo S.A. de C.V, concessionaire of the advertising spaces in the Metro, which reported that the contractor for the ads was Luz Alicia Ramos Pineda.
In response to requests from the electoral authority, Ramos Pineda declared “that he has no relationship of any kind with Morena, the civil association Que Siga la Democracia or with any government entity.” He also said that he contracted the Metro spaces on his own initiative and that the resources used for the contracting were his. 
Based on this information, the INE could not impose a sanction or order precautionary measures for the withdrawal of the Metro ads, since it considered that “it is propaganda contracted by a citizen, which does not contravene the provisions of the constitutional, legal and regulatory norms that regulate the revocation of the mandate.”
In effect, the approved regulations establish that for the dissemination of the consultation, the use of public resources and the participation of political parties are prohibited. The only subjects who are authorized to promote the revocation are the INE itself and the citizens, individually or organized, which has allowed the association Que Siga la Democracia to ensure that the massive dissemination campaign in the states is contributed by “citizens”.
ISA Corporativo received permission from the Secretariat of Administration and Finance of the CDMX for the use, exploitation and exploitation of advertising spaces located in public domain assets destined to the STC Metro.
That is, Ramos Pineda hired and paid advertising to ISA Corporativo even though the companies she represents have obtained contracts from the CDMX government to work in the Metro itself in terms of cleaning and removal of propaganda.
Former official and contractor
Luz Alicia Ramos Pineda was an official of the Superior Audit Office of Mexico City, where she served as an advisor on administrative and audit matters, at least, throughout 2018. His employment contract ended before Sheinbaum’s administration took office.
Since 2009, Ramos Pineda has been the legal representative of GP Construcciones together with a relative of his, Delia Gabriela Pineda Mejía. Luz Alicia is also a representative of Agrupación Empresarial, a company where her brother, José Eduardo Ramos Pineda, is a proxy and administrator. 
The latter company is also represented by another relative, Javier Pineda Cedillo, who in turn is an administrator and representative of Grupo Benj, which reports its fiscal domicile in a private home in the San Juan de Aragón neighborhood, Gustavo A. Madero mayor’s office. 
In this colony is also located Agrupación Empresarial in a private house, although it also reports its domicile in a housing unit of the Jardín Balbuena neighborhood, in Venustiano Carranza.
GP Construcciones registers its address in the Roma neighborhood, Cuauhtémoc mayor’s office, in a building of several offices that were vacated during the pandemic.
These properties are the headquarters of three companies that have invoiced a total of 197.9 million pesos through contracts of the government of the CDMX and the mayors Miguel Hidalgo and Cuauhtémoc between 2019 and 2021, under Moreno administrations.
The purpose of the contracts is the conservation, maintenance and cleaning of roads, green areas, sidewalks and zoos, as well as the removal of propaganda on public roads. Eight contracts for 29.2 million pesos have been specifically to clean and remove advertising on stc metro lines.
Read more: Revocation of Mandate: How to locate your box, key figures and what is criticized of the query
Simulate rivalry
GP Construcciones, Agrupación Empresarial and Grupo Benj have obtained contracts by participating in tenders to which they present themselves as if they were rival companies, which violates the Law on Acquisitions, Leases and Services of the Public Sector.
For example, in the tender by restricted invitation IR-DGAF-010-2019 of the Ministry of the Environment (Sedema) these three companies were specifically called: Delia Gabriela Pineda Mejía represented GP Construcciones, Luz Alicia Ramos Pineda to Agrupación Empresarial and Javier Pineda Cedillo to Grupo Benj. The ruling, issued on July 15, 2019, gave the “winner” to Grupo Benj, which was awarded a contract for 1.2 million pesos.
Another example is the procedurePublic tender number SOBSE/DGAF/DRMAS/004/2020, of the Secretariat of Works and Services (Sobse), in which the three companies of the same group participated along with 17 other contestants. In the same contest, on July 31, 2020, Agrupación Empresarial won one more game for 2.1 million pesos, GP Construcciones another for 3.2 million, and Grupo Benj one more for 3.5 million. None lost.
Finally, in the Miguel Hidalgo mayor’s office, in the public tender LPN30001026-007-2020, GP Construcciones and Agrupación Empresarial competed among four other participants. GP Construcciones won a contract for 12.6 million pesos for the pruning of trees on January 8, 2021, still during the administration of the Morenoite Víctor Hugo Romo.
Most of the contracts to Luz Alicia Ramos Pineda’s companies were by direct award. In just one day, on December 31, 2020, the Sheinbaum government signed, one after another, 10 contracts with GP Construcciones, Agrupación Empresarial and Grupo Benj for a total amount of 30.6 million pesos.
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Original source in Spanish