▲ At the request of this newspaper, the legislative chamber responded to expenses for the walls that surround the emblematic mural.Photo Roberto García Ortiz
Fernando Camacho Servin
La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, January 3, 2026, p. 9
The Chamber of Deputies invested almost 30 million pesos (mp) in the restoration of the tezontle façade of Building A of the Legislative Palace of San Lázaro, which is located on the sides of the frontispiece of the building, where the mural by José Chávez Morado titled Political pluralism.
When responding to a request for public information sent by this newspaper, the Chamber’s Transparency Unit indicated that the contract for the work was signed on April 24 of last year and was awarded “directly, as an exception” to the company Alcones Ingenieros Constructores, SA de CV.
The document, signed by the representative of that company, Martha Sánchez Alarcón, and the general director of Material Resources and Services of San Lázaro, Eduardo Rodríguez Arias, establishes that the total amount is 29 million 791 thousand 710 pesos, of which an advance of 8 million 937 thousand 513 pesos (30 percent of the final sum) was paid.
In the response delivered by the Chamber to The Day, It was specified that the maintenance work on the façade of the property, “which is located on Congreso de la Unión Avenue and is made up of three sections, is carried out due to the deterioration of the tezontle coating, caused by the passage of time.”
The above, explained the legislative body, “has been generating the loss of adhesion of the pieces and their detachment, coupled with the fact that some of the walls of said building present natural settlements that have also caused the coating to break, reasons why the need to carry out this intervention was identified.”
In the 135-page agreement, it was also explained that the restoration works on the tezontle walls – which ended on December 31, 2025 – consisted of three phases: releases (cleaning and rinsing the façade), consolidations (removal of loose pieces and covering of gaps) and reintegration (replacement of missing sheets).
As reported in this newspaper, after the September 2017 earthquake, it was necessary to review the mural by José Chávez Morado that is on the frontispiece of the Chamber, to verify that it had not suffered damage.
At that time, a private company dismantled the work, consisting of a central shield 10 meters in diameter and 254 bronze panels; Later, he put it back in its place.
The restoration of the tezontle walls was not the only maintenance expense of the Chamber last year, since the force of the rains not only caused a sinkhole in San Lázaro, but also damaged parliamentarians’ offices.
The rainfall also exposed underground electrical installations, so the legislative branch had to cut some expenses to address this unforeseen eventuality.
