The Green Party leadership responded to the Mayor’s statements. He also distanced himself from José María Tapia.
“As for the statements of our dear friend Luisa María Alcalde, national leader of Morena, we only want to specify that the former director of Fonden, José María Tapia, does not belong to the Green Party. Although it is true that the former official was a coalition candidate for the Municipal Presidency of Querétaro in 2024, he is not a member of or within the ranks of the Green Party,” he said.
During the 2024 campaign, Sheinbaum appeared in a video alongside Fonden’s former director. “There is very little left until the election and you know, our candidate in Querétaro, in the city of Querétaro, is Chema Tapia. This June 2, do not stop voting for Chema,” said the then presidential candidate.
President Claudia Sheinbaum considered today that before being nominated by Morena for a popularly elected position, the profile of José María Tapia, who was director of the Natural Disasters Fund (Fonden) in the government of former PRI member Enrique Peña Nieto, should have been reviewed in more detail.
“It seems very good to me that the current leadership of Morena has decided by people who have joined that perhaps it should have been reviewed in greater detail and that it is no longer the decision of the president, the general secretary, the organization or just the executive committee, but of a commission that makes an analysis of who can be a candidate for morena or the coalitions,” he stated this Friday.
After the damage caused by the rains in Puebla, Querétaro, Hidalgo, San Potosí and Veracruz, the president defended the disappearance of Fonden, which she claimed operated with corruption.
He announced that next week he will present in his morning conference a report on the irregularities detected in the Fonden, including declarations of emergency due to heat waves.
In this context, the president was questioned about the incorporation of José María Tapia, director of Fonden in the Peña Nieto government, and who was a Morenista candidate for mayor of Querétaro.
According to an investigation by Mexicans Against Corruption (MCCI), in 2020 the Secretariat of National Defense (Defense) assigned it a contract for 1,350 million pesos to supply ventilators. He also acquired an apartment valued at 6.5 million dollars, equivalent to more than 100 million pesos.
In her press conference, the president considered it positive that this year Morena has approved the formation of an Incorporation Evaluation Commission to analyze the new profiles that want to join that party.
“I think that Morena did well in forming this commission, that it does not depend on one person or another to invite someone from another party to be a candidate, but rather that a commission review it according to the history of the person who makes the decision. I believe that today they did that in their council and it seems good to me,” he indicated.
