On “Aristegui en Vivo,” lawyer Paulo Díez warned about what he describes as “a new highway scam, now based in Sonora,” a scheme that, according to him, repeats the same patterns and actors from previous corruption scandals in the country’s infrastructure sector.
“Very quickly, I’ll tell you and the audience, in a previously agreed-upon scheme… the transfer of the concession for the operation of the Nogales bypass in Sonora, a federal highway, was authorized in an absolutely illegal manner to a very recently created company with no experience in the sector,” Díez said.
The most serious aspect, he emphasized, is that this company did not pay “a single peso to the federal government as compensation for this transfer.”
Díez explains that the favored company, Nogamex, was created just one day after Governor Alfonso Durazo announced his highway program.
“They had already named it Nogamex, so to speak, in reference to the highway they were going to hand over to them without a public tender,” he explained.
The main shareholders of this company, according to the lawyer, are Daniel Madariaga Barrilado, a partner and friend of Alfredo del Maz, as well as a firm linked to the family office of former presidential legal advisor Julio Scherer Ibarra.
Both companies are headquartered in a house in Lomas de Chapultepec, Mexico City, which previously belonged to a Madariaga company.
“We don’t know exactly who the owner is,” added Díez, who suggests that the operation was carefully orchestrated to benefit a close circle of power.
The lawyer points out two central illegalities in the process. First, the concession was transferred despite the previous concessionaire’s “chronic noncompliance” with its obligations, which, according to Article 13 of the Federal Roads, Bridges, and Motor Transport Law, should have prevented any transfer.
“The deplorable physical condition of that bypass is known to everyone who travels there,” he emphasized.
The second irregularity occurred months ago. Later, when Jorge Nuño Lara, then head of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications, and Transportation, extended the concession term “for an additional 30 years, which is clearly illegal.”
Díez explains that the law establishes a maximum of 30 years and that, in this case, the original concession was for 25 years, having previously been extended for five more years.
“It couldn’t have been extended beyond an additional 20 years… but here this man, who doesn’t respect and has never respected the law, especially when it comes to benefiting his friends and associates, gave them an additional 10 years,” he denounced.
Díez expressed that this case is a reflection of old practices, referring to the case of the Bicentennial Viaduct in Mexico City.
“We are once again seeing the involvement of many of those who were part of that corrupt scheme involving the Bicentennial Viaduct: Julio Scherer Ibarra, of course at the head… Jorge Nuño Lara, Daniel Madariaga… and this other group.” of companies that are part of the so-called Julio Scherer Ibarra Family Office.”
The lawyer filed a formal complaint with the Attorney General’s Office, hoping that the authority will investigate and reverse the concession.
“I hope the prosecutor’s office takes it into consideration and conducts the appropriate investigations to demand that this concession be rescinded, that it be returned to the federal government, which is what should have happened,” he insisted.
When asked about his interest in the case, Díez argued that he was doing so solely for civic reasons.
“My legal interest is crystal clear… I am a citizen, I am a lawyer, a person who was raised to love his country, and it seems to me that all I am doing is giving back to the country a little of what it has given me… I do it for that reason, in fulfillment of a duty.”
The lawyer regrets that, despite the accusations, he has faced lawsuits and pressure for his activism, but he assures us that he will continue.
“They’ve harassed me for more than four years, they’ve cost me time and money, and they’ve caused concern for my family… but I’m going to keep fighting so that the federal government recovers the Bicentennial Viaduct for the benefit of everyone, and so that this new scam, this new corrupt scheme involving the Sonora bypass, doesn’t go away, because we’re all paying for it,” he concluded.
Source: aristeguinoticias
