Rubén Rocha Moya and Héctor Melesio Cuén Ojeda went from being political allies to real enemies in less than two years.
The turning point came in 2023, when the State Attorney General’s Office, controlled by Governor Rocha Moya and Secretary General of Government Enrique Inzunza Cázarez, accused Héctor Melesio Cuén Díaz — son of Cuén Ojeda and former director of Assets and Supplies at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS) — of using UAS resources to make purchases at the family-owned restaurant Casa María, located in downtown Culiacán. The charge was illegal negotiations.
Months later, at the end of that year, Cuén Ojeda responded with a case file he said he had been working on for a long time, according to statements he made on his podcast, Cuentas Claras (“Clear Accounts”).
In episode 47, uploaded to YouTube on January 8, 2024, though apparently recorded days earlier, Cuén Ojeda publicly revealed for the first time an alleged corruption scheme involving public works contracts. According to him, the operation involved the sons of Rubén Rocha Moya, several contractors, and other officials from the Sinaloa government.
What he described as most serious was the existence of records showing transfers from companies that won public bids to companies owned by the Rocha Ruiz brothers, the governor’s sons.
“In 2021, Rubén Rocha Moya implemented a strategy to extract resources from the state treasury through the Ministry of Public Works. This was discovered after an in-depth investigation that lasted months and included extensive documentation. This is organized crime. I respect ‘the others’ more than I respect you, because you carry badges, enjoy immunity, and never take risks. You are cowards,” he declared during the program.
Cuén alleged that the scheme relied exclusively on state funds so the contracts could not be audited by federal authorities. He claimed local oversight was not a concern because those involved maintained strict control over both the Ministry of Public Works and the State Superior Audit Office. Even so, he said they presented complaints and documentation before both state and federal institutions.
According to Cuén, there were more than 200 allegedly simulated contracts and direct awards totaling 2.889 billion pesos.
“We dared to file complaints against the Government of the State of Sinaloa. That’s exactly how it should be said. We had to do it before the state prosecutor’s office, but the prosecutor is loyal to them. We also filed complaints before the State Superior Audit Office, which also belongs to them… then we went to the Federal Superior Audit Office and to the Board of Directors of Congress,” he continued.
“But the serious part is that the companies winning all these bids transferred money to companies owned by the governor’s sons. It couldn’t be more obvious.”
Weeks later, Cuén held a press conference where he stated that the complaints had been filed since November 2023.
He added that the alleged carousel scheme not only involved Chocosa, the company linked to Rubén and Ricardo Rocha Ruiz, but also Housesin, associated with Finance Secretary Enrique Díaz Vega, who was later accused by the United States of links to organized crime and reportedly detained there.
Months passed, and the lawsuits against the Rocha Ruiz brothers were mentioned only occasionally on the podcast, according to a review conducted for this text. That changed in the final episode — number 97, dated July 20, 2024 — five days before Cuén Ojeda was killed and Ismael Zambada García was kidnapped at a property in Culiacán.
The president of the Sinaloense Party (PAS) appeared visibly angry. He accused Governor Rocha of committing an “infamy” against his family, claiming authorities had kept them “on edge” with what he described as a fabricated investigation file. He then displayed images of the complaints filed against the Rocha Ruiz brothers.
“Inzunza told the governor: you can do whatever you want — steal, kill, anything. I control the judiciary, don’t worry. I only use the judiciary against the opposition,” Cuén said after more than half an hour of increasingly intense commentary.
“Because federal justice is already following this case, and beyond federal justice, others are following it too,” he warned regarding the accusations.
Near the end of the more than hour-long podcast, just three minutes before it concluded, he stated that further complaints against Rocha’s sons would continue:
“Of course there will be more complaints from us — many more complaints, and they will be legitimate, not fabricated.”
However, that never happened, because he was later killed.
Source: mexicodailypost
