Puerto Morelos Mayor Accuses Predecessor Laura Fernández Piña of 1.26 Billion-Peso Embezzlement

Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo — Mayor Blanca Merari Tziu has accused her predecessor, Laura Fernández Piña, of embezzling more than 1.264 billion pesos (roughly $63 million) from the municipal government and leaving residents with a debt burden she says will take 20 years to pay off.

Speaking at a press conference, Merari said criminal complaints have already been filed against former officials of Fernández’s administration, including Héctor Alcaraz, the municipal chief administrative officer; Antonio Venaveta, the municipal treasurer; Eligio Sierra; and Fernández herself along with her husband.

Fernández, who governed Puerto Morelos until 2021, is now the candidate for governor of Quintana Roo for the PAN-PRD coalition. Merari said the last three years of her administration saddled local residents with two decades of debt, and that complaints over the debts and diverted funds have been formally lodged.

Parallel Investigations Underway

“These proceedings, and the complaints this city government is pursuing, are continuing,” Merari said. She added that other agencies, including the State Superior Audit Office, are conducting parallel investigations that she could not detail because they are not the municipality’s own cases.

Merari said the municipality has filed more than 2,500 observations that led to 64 summonses for testimony, and that 24 matters have been referred for investigation and are now in administrative proceedings.

She rejected suggestions that the accusations amount to electoral payback.

“We cannot stay silent in the face of this situation; failing to report it would make me an accomplice, which is why we are proceeding this way after finding all these debts that were left to us,” she said. “This is not electoral revenge. We are not to blame for Laura now being a candidate for governor; we are only addressing the irregularities we detected.”

Merari also said she holds Fernández responsible should anything happen to her, her daughters, her relatives or members of her administration.

Debt Breakdown

Irma Ávila Méndez, the municipality’s chief administrative officer, detailed the inherited debts, which include:

• 89,725,401.48 pesos owed to the IMSS (Mexican Social Security Institute) for contributions that were withheld but never paid
• 18,903,804 pesos in unpaid income tax (ISR)
• 18.9 million pesos owed to the federal and Quintana Roo tax administrations for withholdings on salaries, salary-equivalent income and leasing
• A 30.3 million-peso loan taken from the Quintana Roo tax administration in 2018; a 2020 payment agreement was never honored, leaving 28.7 million pesos outstanding
• 11.1 million pesos owed in payroll tax (ISN)
• 37,295,876.26 pesos owed to suppliers and contractors

Contractor debt accumulated year by year, Ávila said: 698,000 pesos in 2016, 666,000 pesos in 2017, 35,000 pesos in 2018, 6.1 million pesos in 2019, 7 million pesos in 2020 and 22.7 million pesos in 2021.

Public-Private Contracts Questioned

Municipal lawyer Karim de la Rosa said two public-private partnership contracts were signed — one for public lighting and another for the construction of a public building — worth more than 800 million pesos over a 20-year term. He said they were irregular because the amounts awarded far exceeded what the state Congress had authorized.

The complaints include embezzlement and fraud, filed with the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, and negligence in the performance of duties, filed with Quintana Roo’s anti-corruption prosecutor’s office.