President Andrés Manuel López Obrador spoke out for “pausing” relations between Mexico and Spain, due to the “abuses” and “looting” that, from his perspective, Hispanic companies have carried out in the country.
However, his own government has given contracts for billions of pesos to Spanish companies for the development of the Mayan Train and the rehabilitation of the Tehuantepec Isthmus Railway, key works of the six-year term.
Spain’s response was immediate and, in a call for mutual respect, it cited some figures that demonstrate the importance of the commercial and economic relationship between the two nations. Spain, for example, has investments in Mexico equivalent to 70,000 million pesos. For his part, López Obrador qualified his position on Thursday, but indicated that Iberian companies should apologize to Mexico for the looting.
Senermex, FCC Construccion, TSK, Grupo Azvi are some of the companies of Spanish origin that participate in key infrastructure works of the government of the Fourth Transformation.
The Sener case, from Peña Nieto to López Obrador
Senermex Engineering and Systems is a subsidiary of the Spanish group Sener, founded in 1956 and which received million-dollar contracts during the past six-year terms, including some in alliance with OHL. The latter indicated by the president as “the favorite company” of Enrique Peña Nieto.
Sener, however, was not far behind, since for years it received contracts from CFE, Pemex, the Ministry of Communications and Transportation, the Navy, the Mexican Petroleum Institute.
Now, under the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican subsidiary of Sener, Senermex, won a contract worth almost 313.2 billion pesos for the Supervision of Executive Projects of the Mayan Train, as indicated by the one allocated by the government for said work.
Senermex also prepared, between 2013 and 2014, various studies related to the Mexico-Toluca Interurban Train. At that time, for these works he received 489.9 million pesos from the government of Enrique Peña Nieto.
Carlos Slim and the Spanish companies of the NAIM to the Mayan Train
The Spanish company FCC Construcción, together with Grupo Carso, has a contract for 15,994 million pesos for the construction of the Mayan Train. Carlos Slim has a large stake as a shareholder in FCC and is the owner of Grupo Carso.
Both companies formed the Operadora CICSA to compete in the tenders for said infrastructure.
But it is worth mentioning that for FCC Construccion and the Spanish Acciona they had, at the time, the main contract to build the air terminal of the New Mexico City International Airport that Andrés Manuel López Obrador canceled after arriving in government. The construction of said terminal was valued at 84,800 million pesos.
Energy for the Mayan Train ‘in Spanish hands’
A part of the energy with which the Mayan Train will move will come from two combined cycles of natural gas that will be built by two Spanish companies, in the state of Yucatan.
The Federal Electricity Commission will develop these two new cycles that will be located in Valladolid, for the generation of 1,000 Megawatts and Mérida, for the generation of 500 MW.
For this purpose, the CFE awarded a contract of 300 million euros, the equivalent of more than 7,000 million pesos, to the Spanish company TSK, which formed a consortium with another Iberian company, Técnicas Reunidas, and the Japanese Mitsubishi Power, to carry out different phases of the project.
Técnicas Reunidas, for its part, will receive around 355 million dollars for the design and execution of the plants at 50%.
Spanish women on the Mayan Train and the Transisthmian Corridor
The Tehuantepec Isthmus Corridor Project is also one of the most important infrastructure works for the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. And the Spanish companies have an important participation for its construction.
Grupo Azvi, a Spanish company, also benefited from contracts for the construction of the Mayan Train. Together with its subsidiary Construcciones Urales and the GAMI company, they obtained a contract for more than 8,787 million pesos; according to information collected by PODER.
The contract, won in 2020 in a public tender, is to prepare the executive project, supply of materials and construction of the platform and track of the Mayan Train in the Calkiní-Izamal section.
The Azvi group, however, also has a contract for the rehabilitation of the section of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec railway, in the Medias Aguas-Ubero section, through the subsidiary Construcciones Urales, in association with Regiomontana de Construcción y Servicios. The contract was for 786 million pesos plus taxes.
Comsa Infraestructuras, belonging to the Miarnau family, one of the wealthiest in Catalonia, was the winner of a contract of almost 600 million pesos, to rehabilitate the Isthmus of Tehuantepec railway, together with Grupo Constructor Diamante.
