Almost a week after Grupo Vidanta was involved in the controversy -after Andrés Manuel López Obrador publicly acknowledged that his eldest son works in a company created by Iván and Érika Chávez, children of the founder of the hotel giant-, Daniel Chávez He spoke about it by denying relations with public officials, as well as favoritism in concessions and other projects of the Federal Government.
“Grupo Vidanta, my family and I do NOT have a commercial or work relationship of any kind with any level of government or public officials,” said Daniel Chávez, founder of Grupo Vidanta, in a press release, issued four days after José Ramón López Beltrán issued a statement where he assures that his income comes entirely from his work at KEI Partners, which belongs to the children of Chávez.
Regarding his position in the Mayan Train project, which is a function of Honorary Progress Supervisor, the businessman from Delicias, Chihuahua, assured that “he has no relationship of any kind with project, outline or administration issues.” And he added: “My job consists solely of having a reliable review and measurement of the progress of the work.”
The businessman also referred to the donation of 2,000 hectares for the construction of a solar park for the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, next to the Mar de Cortés International Airport (owned by Grupo Vidanta), and which also adjoins the Vidanta Puerto Peñasco complex. “Grupo Vidanta will NOT participate in any way in the project. It will be the CFE that supplies all its users equally,” he said.
Regarding the text of the organization Mexicans Against Corruption, which indicates the extension of a concession in 2020 for 15 years to occupy a beach, Chávez affirmed that no concessions have been requested or received from the current government.
“ALL the beach concessions and use that we have to be able to provide tourist services, were obtained in PREVIOUS SIX-YEARS”, says the businessman verbatim in the document.
“The only exception is a concession title, allocation for runoff, for an area of 11,663.74 m2 (April 19, 2021) (…) In some media it was wrongly published, that in this six-year term we have received new concessions; one for 384.32 m2 (February 12, 1986), another for 3,888.19 m2 (March 11, 2005) and another for 84,447.07 m2 (April 13, 2005). As the dates clearly indicate, these correspond to previous six-year terms and have only been renewed in accordance with law,” he added.
Chávez also said that it is false that Grupo Vidanta intends to invest in Islas Marías, which until a few years ago ceased to be a prison complex and became a reserve. Similarly, he also denied that Vidanta Cruises – the company’s new business unit, which will start operations next April – plans to go to Islas Marías.
However, the company reported the purchase of 400,000 pieces of the Presidential Plane raffle through the Delia Morán Vidanta Foundation, which, according to the company, were donated in their entirety to schools in marginalized areas.
“Fortunately, eight schools obtained winning tickets and received prizes of 20 million pesos each. In total there were 160 million pesos that were delivered to the residents to remodel their school facilities and improve the conditions of their towns,” the statement said.
