Carmel Fair Scandal: Exposing Lavish Spending 2024

Just weeks before the end of her term, former Solidaridad mayor, Roxana Lili, reportedly spent a total of $6,430,576.00 to organize the Carmel Fair 2024. The contract, under the tender number DPM-LP-SER-066-2024, was awarded to PPI Professional Planning Integrals S. de R.L., with a 30 percent advance of $1,929,262.00, valid from July 7 to 31, 2024.

However, the financial management of the event has raised eyebrows, particularly the payment of $26,680,000.00 to Carín León, a singer who performed at the fair. Questions have been raised about the necessity of such a high expenditure on a single artist, when the same amount could have covered the entire logistics and performances of several nationally or internationally recognized artists.

Furthermore, the logistics services alone cost over 6 million pesos, with no clear public breakdown of the expenditure, leading to public skepticism. In a time when efficient and transparent use of public resources is paramount, such contracts not only raise doubts, but also fuel public discontent.

Municipal authorities are urged to clarify the criteria used to determine these amounts, as well as the procedure for awarding these contracts. Without this transparency, the Carmel Fair 2024 risks being remembered more for its excessive spending than its cultural impact.

It’s worth noting that the regional Mexican singer performed on July 15 at the Plaza 28 de Julio. According to the Solidaridad city council, 25,000 people attended the event, unaware that they each effectively paid 1,067 pesos in taxes for the performance. These funds could have been invested in public works and security, rather than a single artist’s performance.

The concert was opened by regional Mexican singer, Braulio Mata, and featured a performance by Mexican composer Carín León. León performed his greatest hits, including ‘La boda del Huitlacoche’, ‘Primera cita’, ‘Despídase bien’, and ‘Según quién’, setting attendance records on the penultimate day of the Playa del Carmen Fair 2024, according to press reports from Roxana Lili’s office.

 Former Solidaridad mayor Roxana Lili, a new addition to the National Regeneration Movement party and now a protected member, is actively seeking to conceal contracts, as this would reveal her embezzlement while she held the city council.

However, despite its efforts to prevent its corruption from becoming known, the National Transparency Platform (PNT) released the technical specifications for contract DPM/LP/ADQ/021/2022, related to the acquisition of electrical equipment. The document was awarded to Miguel Ángel Garrido Rivera.

Said agreement was for a maximum amount of $16,164,708.03 (sixteen million one hundred sixty-four thousand seven hundred eight pesos 03/100 MN) and a minimum of $276,080.00 (two hundred seventy-six thousand eighty pesos 00/100 MN), valid from September 14 to December 31, 2022.

However, when attempting to access the details of this and other contracts from the same year, the links appear disabled, making it impossible to verify the acquisitions made.

Interestingly, this issue only affects 2022 contracts, as the links for 2023 contracts do work correctly. This raises serious concerns about the intention behind the inaccessibility of these documents.

The lack of transparency in the publication of contracts is a clear violation of the right to access information and calls into question the handling of public resources during Roxana Lili’s administration. What are they trying to hide?

During her reelection campaign, Roxana Lili accused and even mocked the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) of welcoming people from other parties with questionable track records, but as they say, “a fish dies by its mouth,” and today, in her search for “forgiveness,” she is already part of the Fourth Transformation.

Now, members of her former party, National Action, have denounced their no longer support of their former treasurer, Kira Iris San, because she used the association for personal gain, even though they did so at the time, when they governed the municipality of Solidaridad.

For their part, they pointed out that both Kira Iris and Roxana Lili continue to exert influence within the party and seek to intervene in the election of the Standing Committee to impose their allies, destabilizing the movement’s foundations.

“Roxana Lili and Kira Iris only have personal interests at heart. During their rise in politics, they used the PAN, but never joined it. What’s more, they loudly declared they weren’t PAN members, even though their entire administration used it as a political banner whenever it suited them. That’s called disloyalty,” the committee stated.

They also accused the former mayor and treasurer of having no political ideology, changing their minds according to their political interests. Therefore, it was not appropriate to have the former PAN official in the current Solidaridad council. As you may recall, she faced legal proceedings before the Quintana Roo Electoral Tribunal, which decided to remove her from the Tenth Council for failing to comply with the procedural requirements for her selection as a council member.

They also asserted that Filiberto Martínez Méndez, a deputy in the 18th Legislature, supported them out of personal interest and not in support of the alliance that the PAN and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) had at the national level.

Today, the three individuals in question appear to be closer to Morena and far from the ideals they once championed, although those they criticize today were the ones who helped plunder Solidaridad’s coffers.

The Superior Audit Office of the Federation (ASF) demanded that the former municipal president of Solidaridad, Roxana Lili Campos Miranda, clarify the destination of 90 million 483 thousand 537 pesos (15 pesos) from the Federal Participation Fund for Municipalities of the 2023 Account.

According to compliance audit 2023-D-23008-19-1763-2024, in its in-person format, number 1763, the recent member of the 4T government supported by the internal faction of federal deputy Ricardo Monreal Ávila, was unable to verify expenses in acquisitions and services provided by various agencies.

Despite the shortfall of 90,483,537 pesos (15 pesos), the Monrealistas in the Chamber of Deputies have expressed their support for the former mayor of the municipality of Solidaridad. It should be noted that the ASF is dependent on the Lower House of Congress.

In its review of six procurement files, the ASF identified the missing millions in four contracts with numbers DPM/LP/SER/001/2023, DPM/LP/SER/004/2023, DPM/LP/ARR/007/2023; DPM/LP/SER/005/2023; and DPM/LP/ADQ/004/2023.

It should be noted that contract DPM/LP/SER/001/2023 is for the food service for personnel assigned to the Municipal Public Security and Transit Secretariat. Contract DPM/LP/SER/004/2023 was for the food service for institutional personnel assigned to the Municipal Public Services Secretariat; DPM/LP/ADQ/004/2023 was for the acquisition of supplies for preparing food for inmates at the Municipal Detention Center; and DPM/LP/SER/005/2023 was for the packaged food service for institutional personnel of the Fire Department of the Civil Protection, Risk Prevention, and Firefighters Secretariat.

The breakdown of the damage to the Federal Public Treasury was determined as follows: 64 million 90 thousand 252 pesos from the Federal Participation Fund to Municipalities. The anomaly was detected because the government of former President Lili Campos failed to provide sufficient documentation to prove all the contracted services. The delivery and receipt records, daily logs, and photographic evidence were not submitted. Therefore, it is assumed that the service was not performed.

Regarding contract number DPM/LP/ADQ/004/2023, related to the acquisition of supplies for food preparation for inmates at the municipal detention center for the 2023 fiscal year, and upon review of the information provided, it was found that the monthly orders submitted for the months of January through December were not provided. Furthermore, no information was provided on the supplies received for the months of January through November, amounting to 24,662,700 pesos, paid with resources from the 2023 Federal Participations to Municipalities.

Therefore, it is presumed that there may be damage or loss, or both, to the Public Treasury in the amount of 24 million 662 thousand 734 pesos, since the monthly orders supplied for the months of January through December were not provided; in addition, information on the supplies received for the months of January through November regarding contract DPM/LP/ADQ/004/2023 was not provided.

Another of the multimillion-dollar embezzlements was recorded at the Municipal Sports Institute. A review of 21 files reported as expenses under Chapter 4000, “Transfers, Allocations, Subsidies, and Other Aid,” totaling 9 million 435 thousand pesos, paid with funds from the 2023 Federal Municipal Shares, revealed that the collaboration agreement supporting the municipality’s contributions to the Sports Institute (support for the Inter Playa club) was not provided. Of these, 21 payment orders were issued under the heading of municipal contributions for operating expenses of the Sports Institute (support for Inter Playa) corresponding to the two-week periods of February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, and December.

Furthermore, operating expenses of the Sports Institute (Inter Playa support) were not verified, in the management of the sale of plane tickets for a trip to Veracruz (November) and Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas (October), for an amount of 1 million 550 thousand 600 pesos, as evidenced by the review of accounting policies and electronic transfer receipts.

And yet, the former mayor strolls through the offices of the Morena parliamentary faction in the Chamber of Deputies and at party events, taking selfies with members of the Fourth Transformation government, clearly signaling that she will enjoy impunity for thousands of people.