On his first day in office, Miguel Ángel Navarro Quintero acknowledged the “critical fiscal situation” that reigns in the state in which he was elected governor. President Morena asserted on September 19, 2021 that the Nayarit state government owes a total of approximately $560 million, including P6.7 billion to private banks, P2.7 billion to SAT, and P800 million to ISSSTE. Panorama “with depopulated pension funds and committed resources” would “produce a social crisis in the very short term”. In the face of the governor’s question: “How will we utilize Nayarit?”, alarms have grown about irregularities within FIBBA (Bandera Bay Trust), the powerful state fund that manages hundreds of hectares of the coast. There are seeds of an “unprecedented” joint operation between the state government and the Attorney General’s Department (FGR) that will ultimately involve two former governors and dismantle the real estate corruption network in the upscale Riviera Nayarita.
Nuevo Nayarit’s large-scale operation began in early 2022, but it was only on Tuesday of this week that the state government and FGR announced the results at a federal facility in Mexico City. In total, 960 hectares of coastline have been restored, representing more than 530 parcels of real estate, valued at 50 billion pesos (approximately $2.7 billion). This represents 92% of the total recoverable land. “We aim for 100%,” the governor said.
Nayarit authorities have glorified the operation, but there has also been an avalanche of lawsuits against it. “This is a unique case in Mexican history,” Navarro Quintero defined. State Attorney Petronillo Díaz added that it was “one of the most complex investigations in recent history, not only in Nayarit but also in Mexico,” or “an all-out war.” said Gabriel Camarena, Nayarit government’s legal coordinator, who was charged in August with abuse of power and other charges in the case.
The investigation began in February 2022, when the Nayarit Prosecutor’s Office received complaints from FIBBA of maladministration and influence peddling against former state officials, former federal officials, former governors, individuals, and companies for allegedly operating illegal real estate. State authorities pointed out that from 2005 to 2021, the Bahia de Bandera Trust allowed land on Nayarita Beach to be handed over at exorbitant prices. “For example, if you are facing the sea, it is 50 pesos per square meter,” Camarena elaborated.
Cristina Resendiz, FGR’s competition prosecutor, said Ney González (governor from 2005 to 2011) and Roberto Sandoval (state premier until 2017) were also involved in the scheme. The official detailed that González has a federal arrest warrant starting in 2023 for operating with illegal resources. Moreover, the former governor remains a fugitive from justice, although he was also issued a red card by Interpol for this very incident. As for Sandoval, Resendiz said the investigation is still ongoing. The PRI leader was arrested on the same charges in June 2021 and has been held in El Rincon federal prison ever since, but was convicted of money laundering just two months ago.
Authorities are unwilling to name the companies or other individuals involved, but suggest the network has resulted in “multiple” arrest warrants for business crimes using illegal resources, influence peddling and violations of protection laws, among other charges. “Additionally, we investigated both former public officials and their close relatives,” Prosecutor Nayarit said.
The official explained that more than 350 accounts worth more than P7.2 billion belonging to individuals and legal entities were blocked, searches were conducted, and notary examinations were conducted, “related to illegal operations where falsification of books, records and official documents was detected, confirming the existence of a carefully planned network to imitate legal acts and deprive the nation of highly valuable assets.”
FIBBA was born as a public trust to promote tourism development on the Nayarit coast, but two decades later it became the cornerstone of this corrupt scheme that included subdivisions, high-rise apartments, shopping plazas, and land in the cities of Bahia de Banderas and Compostela.
According to the governor, these lands are now under state control and the constitution has been amended to prevent them from being sold again. The Nayarit state government has created two mechanisms in this regard. Fund of the Government of Nuevo Nayarit (FOSON) and Fund for Savings for a Dignified Retirement of Nayarit Workers (FAN). The purpose of both is to “protect” these assets on the one hand and seek profitability from them on the other. Therefore, the government is already a partner in four real estate projects, from which it will receive 18% of the profits. The governor explained that of these profits, 51% will be allocated to social infrastructure and 49% to workers’ pensions in the Nayarit Savings Fund. “As the stock is recovered, it is deposited in an investment fund, there is no temptation to sell it, and the recovery improves,” the governor concluded, finding there the answer to how to capitalize Nayarit.
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