López Beltrán Calls Salinas Pliego a “Vulture” and Questions Him About His Ties to Epstein, García Luna and Marcial Maciel

ByLa Jornada Staff

This article by La Jornada Staff originally appeared in the November 9, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. Andrés Manuel López Beltrán, son of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on Monday answered one by one the questions put to him by businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego, whom he called “miserable” and a “vulture,” and returned to him his own list of questions about his businesses, his taxes and his personal relationships.

In a video of about 34 minutes released on his social media, López Beltrán maintained that the accusations by the president of Grupo Salinas are “in reality a disguised accusation,” because the businessman has no evidence to accuse him directly, and he said the questionnaire seemed to have been written by a child.

López Beltrán stated that he generates legitimate income, that he is up to date on paying taxes, “unlike you,” and that his economic activities are audited by the government and the banks.

López Obrador’s son also reiterated that he has never had a contract with any level of government, neither directly nor through third parties, and that he did not intercede for or recommend anyone to obtain one.

López Beltrán responded to Salinas Pliego’s question about the murder of Ximena Guzmán and José Muñoz, aides to Mexico City Head of Government Clara Brugada, and told the businessman, for making political use of the crime:

You are a miserable man, a person without values and a vulture.

Andrés Manuel López Beltrán

He described both as honest and humble people, and said he hoped the material and intellectual authors would be arrested.

Salinas Pliego’s Questionable Ties

After warning that for every question he answered he expected an answer from the businessman, López Beltrán directed at him a list of questions about his business career, his lawsuits and his personal relationships.

The first batch focused on Luis Cárdenas Palomino, a former associate of Genaro García Luna. López Beltrán asked whether he was director of Adamantium, Salinas Pliego’s private security company, and whether under his management it won contracts at airports and ports during the government of Enrique Peña Nieto. “Isn’t it logical to link you to the accusations that are also made against Cárdenas Palomino?” he posed, mirroring the method he attributes to the businessman. And he asked whether Salinas Pliego has a relationship with García Luna.

López Beltrán recalled that both García Luna and Cárdenas Palomino are in prison and accused in the United States of drug trafficking, and asked the businessman whether he knew that the director of his company was linked to those crimes or whether he never suspected it. He also asked whether the contracts that Adamantium carried out at airports and ports, headed by a person accused of drug trafficking, could have been used to facilitate criminal activities, and how much they amounted to. “Do you think it is morally correct to hire a former public official to win contracts in the areas that said official coordinated from the government?” he questioned.

On another topic, López Beltrán questioned the purchase of Imevisión, the state television network that Salinas Pliego acquired and that would later become TV Azteca. He asked him who set the sale price and whether it is true that the company was worth at least 10 times more than what he paid for it. He recalled that Raúl Salinas de Gortari, brother of then-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who was imprisoned for 10 years accused of crimes such as murder, money laundering, illicit enrichment, tax fraud and embezzlement, lent him 30 million dollars for that operation. He asked him whether that loan should not have been investigated for influence peddling, illicit enrichment and operations with resources of illicit origin and, even if legal, whether it did not seem immoral to him to receive money from the brother of the sitting president when the latter was selling him a state company.

He also asked him whether he ordered or authorized the armed takeover of Canal 40’s transmission facilities in December 2002, and whether he considers the use of force legitimate or legal to resolve a lawsuit or a commercial dispute.

The son of former President López Obrador also questioned whether it is true that Salinas Pliego was a partner of Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ and accused of sexual abuse of minors. According to him, several press accounts indicate that Maciel and the congregation owned 12% of TV Azteca’s shares.

On Jeffrey Epstein, accused of exploitation and abuse of minors, López Beltrán stated that the businessman’s name appears at least 77 times in the so-called Epstein files. He asked him to recount how many times he saw him, what they talked about and why he agreed to see him.

Benefits from Privatizations and Fobaproa

In the area of privatizations, he asked him about his participation in the purchase and sale of Fertinal, another company privatized under the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari. He wanted to know what part of the 635 million dollars that Pemex paid for that bankrupt company ended up in Banco Azteca and in Arrendadora Internacional Azteca, and what is or was his relationship with Emilio Lozoya Austin, who faces a judicial process over the purchase of another part of the company privatized in that six-year term.

López Beltrán also asked him what economic benefits he and his family obtained from Fobaproa and the bailout of the company Salinas y Rocha. He questioned whether it is true that this bailout cost the people of Mexico 4 billion pesos, about 505 million dollars at the time, and that the businessman later bought the already cleaned-up company for only 77.7 million dollars.

Regarding his lawsuits abroad, he recalled that in 2005 the SEC, the federal agency that oversees and regulates securities markets in the United States, accused Salinas Pliego of securities fraud for 109 million dollars. According to López Beltrán, the businessman later reached a settlement in which he paid only 7.5 million dollars, without returning the full amount to shareholders. He asked him whether that means he accepted having committed securities fraud and having profited from it.

The Lawsuits and Debts Salinas Pliego Carries

He also asked him about the lawsuit against him in the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York, where those who bought TV Azteca debt bonds are claiming a debt of more than 600 million dollars from him. According to him, the plaintiffs accuse him of moving the television network’s most important assets to a new company, which he referred to as TVA 3, so that the bondholders could not recover their money in the event of a seizure. He asked him to confirm whether that company exists and whether it holds among its assets the television network’s broadcasting concession.

López Beltrán also asked him whether it is true that the businessman requested a 240-million-dollar loan from Alter Bank, a tiny banking institution on the island of Saint Lucia, in the Caribbean, which according to him has only three employees and capital of 4 million dollars. He wanted to know what he used that loan for, how the bank was funded to lend 70 times its capital, where the money came from and who owns the bank or with whom he negotiated the loan.

He also mentioned a trial in England in which, he said, the businessman was accused of resorting to the espionage firm Black Cube to illegally spy on the lawyers of the opposing party. Maintaining that this espionage has been proven and adjudicated, he asked him whether spying is a recurring practice in his life and professional activity, and whether he regularly hires espionage firms to monitor his adversaries or competitors.

On tax matters, López Beltrán asked him why, if throughout all this time he denied owing taxes, he ended up accepting the payment of 32 billion pesos to the Tax Administration Service (SAT). He asked him to say how much he has paid so far and how much he still has left to pay.

He also questioned him about the scheme he uses to hire the employees of his companies. He asked him why many of them are not registered with the company where they actually work, why they do not enjoy all their labor rights and why part of their salaries is paid to them in another way.

On Elektra, he asked him what the highest rate or total annual cost (CAT) he charges his customers is, and whether he thinks it fair that the neediest people in the country have to pay up to double the price of a product because they cannot pay for it in cash.

Regarding his commercial alliance with Western Union for sending remittances from Mexican migrants in the United States and Canada, he asked him to specify how much commission he charges those who send and those who receive that money, how much he receives in business commissions for those operations and how much he earns on the currency exchange operations.

Relationship with Cerimedo and Gómez Mont

In the section on personal relationships, he asked him to explain his relationship, or that of his family, with Inés Gómez Mont, who he said was recently arrested in the United States, and above all with her husband, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Puga, whom he described as “a famous fake-invoice dealer in this country.”

He also asked him about his relationship with Javier Negre and with the Argentine Fernando Cerimedo, whom he described as his partner and who he said is in prison accused of ordering the murder of his ex-wife. He wanted to know what that political, labor and commercial relationship is based on, whether at any time the businessman financed his political operations in Mexico or abroad, and what his relationship is with the right-wing outlet La Derecha Diario.

On his wealth, López Beltrán noted that Salinas Pliego’s luxuries and ostentatious possessions are public, and asked him how much his yacht, his planes and his helicopters are worth, how many security personnel are at his service and that of his family, how many properties he has for personal use and how much money he has in his personal accounts.

He also reminded him that he has publicly stated that he holds 80% of his personal investment portfolio in bitcoin, and asked him how much money he has in that cryptocurrency or how many bitcoins he owns.

Since the businessman revived, under a new name, the Festival of Ideas, which was previously called the City of Ideas, he asked him what his personal, work or commercial relationship was with Andrés Roemer, a TV Azteca collaborator. López Beltrán recalled that Roemer is a fugitive from justice, accused of rape, aggravated rape and sexual abuse by 61 women.

A Milei That Never Was

On the political front, he said that Salinas Pliego’s relationship with some officials of the United States government is public, and asked him whether he has requested the support, help or intervention of any US official, public servant or politician in his problems with the Mexican government.

He also reproached him for insulting the governments that emerged from the left, which he has accused of being “narco-governments,” their officials, whom he calls “gobernícolas,” and their militants, whom he calls “zurdos” (lefties). He asked him why, then, he continues to maintain contracts and commercial and labor relations with those same governments. “Doesn’t it seem incongruous on your part to attack, but at the same time collect from and work with those governments?” he questioned.

He closed with a personal question: why he chose to bequeath to his family “dishonor and public disrepute in exchange for money.”

López Beltrán closed the video by reading a passage from Pueblo, his father’s book, in which López Obrador talks about Salinas Pliego. In that passage, the former president maintains that the businessman “became enthralled with the internet” and with “the self-deception of the bots,” and that he believed those tools, together with his television networks, would make him an opposition leader and “the great national figure, a kind of Milei.” “Only he was wrong, because Mexico is a country with a people and a history like no other,” López Beltrán reads.

Clarifies Amílcar Matters and Contract Accusations

Regarding Jorge Amílcar Olán, he said that for more than four years he has not seen him or had any communication with him, so he is unaware of his transfers to Switzerland.

On the withdrawal of his US visa, he stated that the State Department gives no justification and only gives notice by email. He reiterated that it was a “politicking and propagandistic, Hitler-style” decision and denied any link to organized crime. He accused Salinas Pliego of being friends with Ambassador Ronald Johnson and with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, whom he called “the visa remover.”