Raúl Rocha Cantú, the controversial magnate who owns the Miss Universe pageant, has once again come under scrutiny from authorities with an investigation launched by the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime (FEMDO). But this is not the first time Rocha has been the subject of the authorities’ interest. The businessman, with a lavish track record in the corporate world and in the import and export of hydrocarbons in Mexico, is wanted for his involvement in a fuel, weapons, and drug smuggling ring originating in Guatemala that connects him to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Mexico City-based cartel La Unión Tepito. An arrest warrant has been issued, which he has rejected without providing any explanation for the charges brought against him. He has so far avoided arrest through an alleged agreement with the prosecution to become a protected witness. In 2011, he left Mexico after the tragedy at the Casino Royale in Monterrey, which left 52 people dead in a fire started by organized crime.

Today, the investigation opened against him alleges, according to the Mexican daily Milenio, that he funneled illicit profits from fuel smuggling from Guatemala — where he served as honorary consul until last Thursday — into his companies. He also used these funds to pay an intermediary who provided him with information about the very investigations being conducted against him by the federal prosecutor’s office specializing in organized crime. The case file is bolstered by wiretapped phone conversations among his associates. Court documents obtained by this newspaper show that, along with Rocha, there are 12 other individuals involved, including police officers and officials from the Attorney General’s Office (FGR).

Raúl Rocha Cantú’s foray into the hydrocarbons industry began in 2017, and within three years he had obtained permits from Mexican authorities to import and export fuels. Just seven years after entering the sector, and already with a consolidated role, an investigation against him began. He started by founding a service station in Monterrey with two partners to sell gasoline and diesel supplied by Pemex. A year later, he established BSE Combustibles, a gasoline distribution and marketing company with government authorization to operate in Mexico. During the pandemic, he made the leap to broader energy corporations, most of them based in his hometown. Latin America Energy Group and Global Solutions Energy Group, both established in 2020, allowed him to import and export fuels. Expansión 2000 served for the construction of energy production facilities and pipelines, with clients such as Pemex, according to its portfolio, and he replicated the model in Panama with Orbison Energy.

During those years, he began to reappear in the public eye — having stepped back from the spotlight after the Casino Royale tragedy — at meetings to promote trade agreements. He posed for a photo with former Brazilian president Michel Temer during a discussion about expanding bilateral relations and was appointed Honorary Consul of Guatemala in the State of Mexico in 2021, based in Toluca. That same year, he also began working as a representative of the private sector on the Board of Directors of the Tamaulipas Energy Commission and as president of the Business Coordinating Council. The ghosts of Casino Royale were beginning to fade. Now established back in Mexico, he was appointed vice president of relations with business organizations of the National Chamber of Commerce of Mexico City (Canaco).

Rocha owns a conglomerate of companies spanning entertainment, gambling, aviation, industrial materials, and real estate, as well as hydrocarbon distribution and transportation. He began his career in Monterrey, his birthplace, working for his mother in the local family business. After graduating with a degree in business administration, he became a shareholder and CEO of Cymsa, an industrial hose manufacturing and exporting company, at just 21 years old, according to his business biography. From there, he expanded his interests, starting with the casino and online gaming industry. One of his first ventures was Casino Royale in 2007, which four years later would become the bloody scene of one of the worst civilian tragedies of Felipe Calderón’s war on drugs.

On August 25, 2011, an armed group stormed the casino in Monterrey. They began shooting and robbing people inside the building, while others doused the place with gasoline canisters. The opulent casino had been targeted by extortion threats and robberies in the past, but this time the criminals — members of the Los Zetas cartel — crossed the line into an attack. Casino Royale was engulfed in flames, while customers and employees suffocated from carbon monoxide poisoning inside, or were trampled by the terrified crowd trying unsuccessfully to escape through the emergency exits, which, according to survivor testimonies, were locked. The final death toll was 52, including a pregnant woman.

In the days that followed, survivors and relatives of the victims demanded that authorities investigate the owners of the establishment, including Rocha. A woman who managed to escape recounted how the criminals pointed guns at people and warned them that if they didn’t leave, they would be killed right there. Amid the panic, people crowded around the doorways, which were either too small for evacuation or simply locked. The then-mayor of Monterrey, Fernando Larrazábal, told the press that Casino Royale lacked the necessary municipal civil protection permits.

It was then that authorities demanded Rocha appear in court to answer for his actions, but he had already left Mexico amid the investigation and the families’ demands. In a letter to civil society in Nuevo León, the businessman asserted from exile that he too was a victim, not a criminal. “I offer a sincere apology to everyone. But the reasons that led me to leave the country before any summons was issued, and after completing the immigration procedures like any other Mexican citizen, are easy to understand: the well-founded fear that my life would be threatened,” he wrote in the document. At the end of that year, a judge issued an arrest warrant against him for alleged violation of the Federal Gaming Law, but he never responded to it.

He spent the following years in the United States, where he continued to build businesses and live with his family. From there, he ventured into real estate, restaurants, and the heavy machinery and construction industries. He even founded the Asociación Niños Mujeres Ancianos Protegidos A.C. (Association for the Protection of Children, Women, and the Elderly) to guarantee access to prosthetics and medications for the most vulnerable sectors of the population. Despite the Casino Royale tragedy, he never abandoned the industry and continued operating gambling establishments in Mexico. The profits allowed him to acquire a $12 million mansion in Miami, as documented by several real estate magazines.

Back on top, he decided to go big and acquire — through his firm Legacy Holding Group — 50% of the Miss Universe televised beauty pageant, just before Mexico was to host the 2024 competition. In the last edition, viewers applauded Rocha’s words when he came to the defense of Fátima Bosch, the Mexican participant, after she was reprimanded by the pageant’s vice president for the eastern region, Nawat Itsaragrisil, during a ceremony in Thailand. “That’s enough, Nawat,” Rocha declared angrily in a video. When Bosch won the crown, accusations of rigging quickly surfaced after two judges resigned. It then came to light that Rocha had signed a contract in 2023 with Pemex, the state-owned oil company where Bernardo Bosch, the winner’s father, has been an executive for 35 years. He denied the allegations in a letter and claimed that he had only met Rocha on September 13, when the Miss Universe Mexico final was held in Guadalajara.

The suspicion of a conspiracy reached even President Claudia Sheinbaum, who dismissed the rumors as ridiculous. However, the controversy finally erupted this week with the prosecutor’s arrest warrant for Rocha. The investigation, of which more and more details are emerging, indicates that the businessman is at the top of a smuggling network that moved fuel in tanker trucks from Chiapas and Tabasco to Querétaro, and supplied weapons to members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in Querétaro and La Unión Tepito in Mexico City.

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Alejandro Gertz Manero, one of the veteran figures of Mexican politics, has stepped down as attorney general but, at 86, he is not retiring from public life. In his resignation letter, he said that he will become an ambassador “to a friendly country.” His departure had been widely rumored before, as had his health issues, but it was only on November 27 that he finally stepped aside.

Gertz waited until 5:15 p.m. to submit his resignation, after hours of chaos in the Senate. His departure clears the way for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to complete her security cabinet. Until now, Gertz had been the only member not appointed by the president.

Gertz became Mexico’s first attorney general in January 2019, nominated by then-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Previously, the institution had been called the Procuraduría. Although it may seem like a cosmetic change, it was actually a deep constitutional reform designed to give the office autonomy from the executive branch. From then on, the attorney general would serve a nine-year term, independent of presidential terms, meaning they could no longer be removed at the whim of a new president. Gertz, who was 79 when he assumed the office, was therefore supposed to serve until the age of 88. He did not make it that far.

However, he wielded a power that could become a weapon: institutional independence. Critics argue that Gertz used his enormous influence to settle personal vendettas and protect alleged business interests. While his job was to defend the Mexican people, in the eyes of many he was a self-serving attorney general.

Gertz’s appointment as attorney general in 2019 marked the return of a political survivor to public life. Born in Mexico City into a wealthy family with a background in the fine arts, he began his public career immediately after earning his law degree in 1961, during the final years of president Adolfo López Mateos’ Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) administration. In his early years, he combined work as a bureaucrat with roles as an entrepreneur, teacher, researcher, and writer — he is credited with authoring around a dozen historical and biographical books, according to his résumé.

In just over a decade, he rose from minor government positions — assistant, private secretary, legal adviser — to become Mexico’s first anti-drug czar under president Luis Echeverría in 1975. His office was officially called the National Coordination of the Campaign Against Drug Trafficking. Unofficially, the “campaign” became known as Operation Condor and marked the beginning of Mexico’s punitive approach to the drug war, which has fueled the country’s ongoing crisis of violence, disappearances, and forced displacement.

In 1998, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, founder of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), appointed Gertz as secretary of public security for Mexico City. Cárdenas became the first opposition politician to win the capital through a democratic vote. Was Gertz — a bureaucrat empowered for decades by the PRI — truly turning left with his appointment, or was it simply a pragmatic shift by a man adept at navigating the theater of politics? A lover of the dramatic, Gertz — after all — was the son of a fiction writer, Mercedes Manero, and had founded the National Association of Theater Producers in 1975.

Gertz served in Cárdenas’ government for two years. In 2000, he became the federal secretary of public security under Vicente Fox, a charismatic businessman from the conservative National Action Party (PAN). From this position, Gertz witnessed Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, head of the Sinaloa Cartel, escape for the first time — he would escape again — from a supposedly maximum-security prison in Jalisco in 2001, hidden inside a laundry cart. Guzmán would not be recaptured for another 13 years. Despite this scandal, Gertz remained in office until 2004, when he resigned to retire at the age of 65.

Gertz had no financial concerns. The grandson of a German businessman, Cornelius Gertz, the lawyer possessed a fortune that allowed him, in the years following his retirement, to acquire four homes in Spain worth 113 million pesos (more than $6 million), according to an investigation by this newspaper. He also bought an apartment in New York and another in Santa Monica, California, valued at $3.5 million, according to Univisión. That does not include the 122 luxury vehicles he purchased for 110 million pesos ($6 million), according to an accusation by the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) reported by El Universal. Gertz has always denied any irregularities in his immense wealth, the size of which he did not disclose to the Ministry of Public Administration, nor did he reveal any potential conflicts of interest.

In 2009, Gertz made a largely symbolic return to the political stage as a federal deputy for Movimiento Ciudadano (Citizens’ Movement), a young leftist party. During the three years he held the seat, he submitted 14 reform initiatives, none of which succeeded, and he was absent for more than half of the votes.

López Obrador’s rise to government following the 2018 election marked yet another return of Gertz to politics, this time with a level of power he had never held during his previous six decades as a public servant. The architect of his alignment with the Obrador administration and his subsequent appointment as attorney general was the influential Julio Scherer Ibarra, who served as legal adviser to the presidency. Initially allies at the start of the presidential term, their dramatic falling out in 2021 cast doubt on the impartiality of law enforcement and criminal prosecution under Gertz at the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR).

The most scandalous case involved his former sister-in-law, Laura Morán, and her daughter, Alejandra Cuevas, whom Gertz reported to the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office over the death of his brother Federico. Gertz accused both of homicide for allegedly neglecting his relative’s health. The capital’s prosecutor closed the case in 2016 due to lack of evidence. However, it was reopened in 2020, after Gertz took charge of the FGR. Immediately, Alejandra Cuevas was detained and imprisoned, where she remained for a year and a half until the Supreme Court ordered her release.

Beyond the cases where Gertz may have had a personal interest, it is undeniable that he was a loyal operative who understood López Obrador’s priorities and, in line with those winds, directed the FGR. There are several examples. When the U.S. government arrested General Salvador Cienfuegos, former secretary of defense, on drug trafficking charges, the Mexican president was concerned about the damage such accusations could do to the Armed Forces’ image. Cienfuegos was returned to Mexico, and shortly afterward the FGR announced that no legal action would be taken against him due to lack of evidence. Not only that: Gertz threatened to file international complaints against the U.S. investigators who dared to accuse the general.

López Obrador repeatedly said that he prefers that those accused of corruption return what they stole rather than spend their lives in prison. The attorney general listened to the president’s peculiar conception of justice and, based on it, pursued through the FGR the multimillion-dollar Pemex frauds and the Odebrecht bribery cases that marked Enrique Peña Nieto’s term, such as those involving Alonso Ancira and Emilio Lozoya.

During Gertz’s tenure, the FGR also closed the case on electoral crimes against Pío López Obrador, López Obrador’s brother, and pursued 31 Conacyt scientists following accusations from the president. This was because Gertz showed far less leniency toward López Obrador’s opponents, such as Rosario Robles, a former friend and collaborator of the president who later aligned with the PRI. At the FGR’s request, Robles was imprisoned — without a sentence — for three years for the multimillion-dollar embezzlements of the “Master Scam” during Peña Nieto’s government. Gertz pressured her to implicate former finance secretary Luis Videgaray in the corruption schemes, but did not achieve his objective.

Claudia Sheinbaum’s rise to power left Gertz out of place. Although he made gestures toward the new president’s government and toward Omar García Harfuch, the powerful security czar, it was not enough to secure his position. For weeks, reports circulated that officials in the National Palace were pressuring the attorney general to step down from the FGR, since, according to Article 102 of the Constitution, the president can only remove him for serious reasons. The other option was the long-discussed reform of the Attorney General’s Office. Sheinbaum carried out López Obrador’s flagship plan to reshape the judicial system, but experts all agreed: without changing how the Attorney General’s Office functioned, impunity in the country — hovering around 95% — would not improve.

Gertz was useful to Sheinbaum in addressing some of the early crises of her government, such as the discovery of the Teuchitlán ranch, the forced recruitment center of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, where he appeared publicly to deny that it was an extermination site, as searcher collectives had claimed.

However, Sheinbam also criticized some of his actions. This week, for example, a scandal erupted over Miss Universe and its powerful president, Raúl Rocha. The businessman had an outstanding arrest warrant and had been under investigation by the FGR since 2024. Members of the Attorney General’s Office were also involved in this investigation. In response to the snowballing situation, Sheinbaum asked Gertz to clarify the matter. Additionally, just hours before the attorney general’s resignation on Thursday, the president — who had not announced his departure — stated: “We need much greater coordination between the state Attorney General’s Offices and the FGR.”

Critics argue that Gertz squandered the nascent independence of the FGR, failing to steer a country riddled with impunity toward genuine law enforcement. That task will now fall to a Sheinbaum ally, the final link in the chain.

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The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the largest ever, the first co-hosted by three countries — Mexico, the United States, and Canada — and the debut of the expanded format with 48 teams and 104 matches. The economic and tourism expectations being generated are equally enormous. FIFA estimates an economic impact exceeding $11 billion, while Mexico anticipates the arrival of some 5.5 million visitors, primarily to the host cities of Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey. Working within this colossal framework is Gabriela Cuevas (Mexico City, 46 years old), appointed a year ago by President Claudia Sheinbaum as Mexico’s representative for the tournament. “I want to organize the best World Cup in history,” she states in an interview with EL PAÍS. She clarifies, however, that her role is not that of an all-powerful director, but rather a mediator between institutions as diverse as FIFA, the Mexican Football Federation (FMF), government agencies such as customs, immigration, and airports, as well as the three host cities.

Cuevas acknowledges that she has set herself an enormous goal, but bases her ambition on the precedents of 1970 and 1986, when Mexico hosted two unforgettable tournaments. “It’s like saying you threw a great party; the more people in the picture, the better the party was,” she summarizes. With fewer than 200 days until the World Cup opening ceremony, Cuevas assures that preparations are progressing at a “very good” pace. However, FIFA’s recent announcement that Guadalajara and Monterrey will host the inter-confederation playoff matches in March has accelerated the organizational efforts. “Every day we work against the clock, but it will serve as a great rehearsal for all the processes of travel, press, immigration… The same goes for the reopening of the Azteca Stadium,” she points out. She also highlights the “great work” of Mexican stadiums, which have invested to meet international standards. “The Azteca will become the only stadium on the planet to host three World Cups; it’s a historic privilege,” she says.

This year’s heavy rains in the capital caused severe flooding, damage, and even collapses at Mexico City International Airport (AICM), raising doubts about the city’s capacity to host an event of such magnitude. But Cuevas remains optimistic. “The largest federal investment is concentrated in the AICM, with nine billion pesos ($490.5 million) allocated for its modernization. Anyone passing by can see that they are working intensively,” she says. “Of course, modernization is necessary. Today we complain about potholes, but during the 1986 World Cup, half the city was devastated by the earthquake,” she recalls. “Mexico’s conditions for hosting a World Cup are better than they were 40 years ago.”

Cuevas also acknowledges the concerns of the neighborhoods near Azteca Stadium and other venues, which have reported negative impacts such as water shortages, displacement, and increased rents. “In Mexico City, there are regular meetings with residents and a program that includes the rehabilitation of 400 [soccer] fields and the construction of another 100.” In Jalisco, she estimates that between 270 and 300 fields will be restored. However, the residents consulted say they have not had any communication with the tournament organizers. Although she understands that public works projects cause disruption, the official insists that they will bring lasting benefits and that citizen participation will be key to accountability. “It is our obligation to bring soccer from the elite sphere to the streets,” she maintains.

For her, the cost-benefit ratio will be proof that the World Cup was worthwhile. Mexico, she asserts, isn’t making investments exceeding the expected return. She cites the case of the United States, which approved $625 million for the 12 months leading up to the tournament: “That’s not happening here.” Another indicator she highlights is the growing tourist interest in cities that won’t be hosting the World Cup. “In Cancún, there are already many hotel reservations for those dates,” she notes. And she predicts that this influx will increase after the December 5 draw for the tournament: “If Brazil or Argentina plays here, it would be wonderful.”

Cuevas highlights one of the national proposals, which they’ve called the Social World Cup. “It’s a distinctive feature of Mexico,” she says. “Neither the United States nor Canada has anything similar.” The goal, she assures, is to leave real benefits in the host cities and in all 32 states “by putting people at the center of the decisions, not the tickets.” The program includes health campaigns, school cups for students, and international competitions for children living on the streets. There will also be a women’s tournament, a robotics world championship, and a national plan to reclaim sports fields and public spaces. “In my generation, we still played pickup games in the street. Reclaiming these fields can strengthen the social fabric.” The grand finale will be the free, public broadcast of matches in public spaces throughout the country, in addition to the Mexico 2026 Festivals promoted by the Ministry of Tourism in 177 “Pueblos Mágicos” (Magical Towns) and state capitals.

The United States will be the main host of the World Cup, with 11 of the 16 stadiums, the majority of the matches, and growing political interest in the sport driven by President Donald Trump. The magnate promoted the bid during his first term and brought it into the spotlight by hosting this year’s Club World Cup, further strengthening his relationship with FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Despite this weight, Cuevas maintains that Mexico will not be overshadowed. “Yes, the United States has more matches, but we have the great advantage of the opening ceremony,” she affirms. “The most-watched moment, the peak of all the indicators, is the World Cup opening. That is a huge responsibility.” Sheinbaum has expressed doubts about her attendance at the opening match on June 11 at Azteca Stadium, even though the tournament tradition includes the participation of the host head of state. The Mexican president instead wants to give her ticket to a girl or young woman. “It doesn’t surprise me,” Cuevas assures. She believes Sheinbaum’s stance has been “very transparent” and seeks to make the event more inclusive. She adds that the decision has already been made known to FIFA and “has had no consequences so far.”

Cuevas asserts that Mexico will stand out for a less measurable quality: “We are the most fun country to watch a World Cup in. We have the best fans. Mexico is a globally recognized country for its hospitality and attention to tourism. Today we are the sixth most-visited country in the world.” She avoids, however, comparisons about which host city has the best atmosphere: “I’m from Mexico City and I won’t fall for any provocations.” But she acknowledges that in Monterrey, Fundidora Park “brings a lot of life and festivities.” Perhaps, she points out, the World Cup atmosphere isn’t as fervent as in previous editions because, as a host nation, Mexico didn’t have to qualify: “Four years ago we were struggling.”

A key part of the national plan is to retain travelers between games with tourist routes. Cuevas is convinced that this combination of visibility, atmosphere, and cultural offerings will make Mexico stand out. “Yes, the United States will have more games,” she summarizes, “but we have something that can’t be replicated: the fans and a country that captivates.”

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