Guadalupe Lizárraga Martes, 18 de Agosto del 2026, 20:48
Salgado and Guakil’s California ties extend to Morena contenders and municipal projects across party lines ahead of 2027.
By Guadalupe Lizárraga
BAJA CALIFORNIA.— Less than two months after the Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office of Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, the FGR, declined to prosecute Fernando Rafael Salgado Chávez, his ties now reach several of Morena’s leading contenders for governor of Baja California. Salgado is also backing municipal hopefuls seeking nominations from other political parties.
His business partner, David Saúl Guakil, brings substantial capital, large-scale real estate interests and a multiparty political history that has taken him from Movimiento Ciudadano to the Green Party. From the latter, he has developed ties with Morena gubernatorial hopefuls already positioning themselves for 2027.
Salgado and Guakil’s relationships extend to Ismael Burgueño, Evangelina Moreno, Alfredo Álvarez and Julieta Ramírez, four of the names competing for Morena’s nomination for governor.
Los Ángeles Press has documented Fernando Salgado Chávez’s business and political relationships for years, including real estate ventures in Southern California involving inflated prices on luxury properties. Those investigations included the Rancho Santa Fe residence used by Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda shortly before her U.S. visa was revoked in 2025. This outlet also documented the business network that led to Fernando Salgado and Gustavo Fimbres, following the mass creation of shell companies used to purchase properties in California and other states without disclosing their ultimate beneficial owners. In 2026, those relationships also reached the electoral contest for 2027.
Salgado backs Arregui as Hank supports Montejo
Alejandro Arregui Ibarra and Pedro Alejandro Montejo Peterson have been formally linked since the 2021 federal elections.
Official records from Mexico’s National Electoral Institute, the INE, placed them second on Fuerza por México’s list for the first electoral district. Arregui was the principal candidate and Montejo his alternate.
Page 122 of the INE’s 2021 resolution showing that Alejandro Arregui Ibarra and Pedro Alejandro Montejo Peterson were registered on the same Fuerza por México ticket. Full document below.
Page 123 of the INE’s 2021 resolution showing Pedro Haces as a Fuerza por México candidate.
Full 2021 INE resolution.
On the same party’s lists, Pedro Haces Barba headed the fourth electoral district and has been identified as Arregui’s political patron.
Five years later, Arregui and Montejo are seeking mayoral offices in different cities.
Arregui wants to run in Ensenada. A source with direct knowledge of the political discussions told Los Ángeles Press that Morena is unlikely to give him the nomination and that the former state lawmaker sees little point in returning to the PRI. According to the source, Fernando Salgado is looking for a party willing to back Arregui’s candidacy.
Montejo is seeking the Tijuana mayoralty and is also said to have the support of Juan Carlos Hank Krauss for a possible candidacy. The two have had a public relationship since Tijuana’s 2021-2024 municipal administration, when Hank served as a city council member and Montejo headed the Economic Development Secretariat, SEDETI.
Montejo has moved through several political parties. After running as Arregui’s alternate under Fuerza por México, he was registered in 2024 by Movimiento Ciudadano as David Saúl Guakil’s alternate on the party’s first Senate ticket in Baja California.
On April 1 of that year, Movimiento Ciudadano notified the INE of Montejo’s resignation and asked to replace him with Rodrigo Aníbal Otañez Licona. The electoral resolution confirms the resignation but does not explain why he stepped down or include Montejo’s original signed resignation letter.
Juan Carlos Hank was also running for the Senate, under the Green Party. That same month, they appeared at political events involving Claudia Sheinbaum, when Montejo was still president of Index Zona Costa and Hank Krauss and his alternate, Rommel Arvizu, were running on the Green Party ticket. That year, Montejo and Hank participated in the electoral process from different parties.
The ties among Guakil, Montejo and Salgado predate those candidacies.
The three had already appeared together publicly at business and social events and later did so again around Cosmopolitan by the Sea, an Ensenada real estate development in which Guakil and Salgado are partners. Alejandro Arregui was also present at the project’s launch.
Guakil continues to support Eva Moreno ahead of 2027
David Saúl Guakil, in addition to being Fernando Salgado’s partner in large-scale real estate projects, has developed a political operation of his own. He was active in Movimiento Ciudadano in Baja California, later moved to the Green Party and in 2026 appears directly linked to two Morena contenders for governor: Evangelina Moreno Guerra and Alfredo Álvarez Cárdenas.
In May 2026, Evangelina Moreno and David Saúl Guakil appeared publicly together at at least two separate events. That same month, Moreno confirmed to Los Ángeles Press that the businessman was supporting her political effort and providing office space for her early campaign activities.
Moreno left those offices after learning about investigations by U.S. authorities into Salgado and people in his circle. A source connected to her political operation later told Los Ángeles Press that Guakil’s financial support has continued.
Moreno comes from the political group of Dolores Padierna and René Bejarano, longtime leaders of the now-defunct PRD. During Jaime Bonilla’s government in Baja California, Padierna asked then-secretary general of government Amador Rodríguez Lozano to place Moreno in a political position from which she could advance her career, according to information obtained by Los Ángeles Press. According to the same information, the Bonilla administration brought her into its political structure. In 2020, Moreno took over the Tijuana state legislative seat for which she had been the alternate after the principal candidate on her ticket died of Covid-19.
In Mexicali, Moreno’s promotion ahead of 2027 is already visible on utility poles and walls, where flyers show a female silhouette alongside the slogan “#IMPECCABLE REPUTATION.” The phrase has been used in promotional materials associated with Moreno. Some flyers omit both her name and Morena’s insignia. Others explicitly mention her by her first name or otherwise refer to her. All promote the message without formally presenting her as a candidate.
That same month, Guakil also took part in an event tied to Alfredo Álvarez Cárdenas. During the same period in which he was appearing at events with Evangelina Moreno, he attended a meeting connected to Álvarez’s political effort, another bid to succeed Marina del Pilar.
Guakil also participates in Alfredo Álvarez’s political effort
On May 11, 2026, Alfredo Álvarez Cárdenas gathered members of the association Acción por los Derechos Fundamentales and business representatives at Tijuana’s Oryx restaurant to incorporate proposals into his Master Plan, the platform supporting his bid for governor. David Saúl Guakil was at the table, along with Ruffo Ibarra, Héctor Osuna Jaime, the president of Coparmex Tijuana and other business leaders.
Alfredo Álvarez with representatives of the business community at an event attended by David Saúl Guakil. Photo: uniradioinforma.com.
Álvarez’s name had already surfaced months earlier in information obtained by Los Ángeles Press about political moves within Fernando Salgado’s group. On January 23, 2026, a confidential source identified Ismael Burgueño, Alejandro Arregui and Alfredo Álvarez Cárdenas as names being considered in calculations around the governor’s race and described a later effort to close ranks around the Burgueño-Arregui-Montejo group.
Four months later, Guakil was publicly taking part in a meeting tied to Álvarez’s political effort. Three days later, he appeared alongside Evangelina Moreno, who had already made public her own bid for the same governorship.
David Saúl Guakil with Evangelina Moreno during another public meeting held in May 2026. Photo: Eva Moreno’s Facebook profile.
Felipe Lameiro on Moreno’s team: a link to Marina’s circle
Former federal lawmaker Felipe Ignacio Lameiro joined Evangelina Moreno’s political orbit through Transformadores Sociales, a structure that works with support groups and community leaders to expand her platform across the state. Through that group, he has promoted Moreno’s proposals and worked with community organizations and local leaders who make up her citizen network.
Lameiro is the brother of Juan Manuel Lameiro, a businessman tied for years to business ventures involving Marina del Pilar, Carlos Torres and Luis Alfonso Torres. Juan Manuel participated with them in private companies, including nightlife establishments in Mexicali where three young people were reported missing in January 2023.
Felipe Lameiro’s presence in that structure adds a direct family connection to Juan Manuel Lameiro, a businessman long tied to Marina del Pilar and Carlos Torres’ circle. Felipe does not appear in the documented companies; the link runs through his brother.
Moreno’s connection to Fernando Salgado runs directly through David Saúl Guakil. Felipe Lameiro adds another link to the longstanding political circle around Marina del Pilar and Carlos Torres. His role is significant in a political effort that seeks to present Eva Moreno as an alternative within Morena, distinct from the image of Gov. Marina del Pilar, whom Los Ángeles Press has reported is under investigation by U.S. authorities over alleged ties to drug trafficking.
Burgueño: public distance from Salgado, with Montejo still in his administration
Tijuana Mayor Ismael Burgueño Ruiz has intensified his efforts to position himself as a contender for governor of Baja California. From City Hall, with the political and economic resources and public exposure that come with the office, he presents his municipal record as a platform for the next electoral step. Sources close to Sheinbaum say the president “has already said it will be a woman” who heads the ticket.
Burgueño has strengthened his political presence in Baja California’s most populous city and has sought to move closer to the president herself in an effort to win support for his bid.
His rise in border politics was accompanied by a publicly close relationship with Fernando Salgado Chávez. Burgueño took part in activities organized by Salgado’s Fundación Fuente de Sabiduría and, at one of those events, went so far as to call the businessman his “friend and brother.” The relationship became strained after it became public in November 2025 that the FGR was investigating Burgueño, Montejo and Salgado in an investigation involving suspected money laundering.
According to information obtained by Los Ángeles Press, Burgueño then began distancing himself from the group. At one of the first meetings organized to promote his bid for governor, he excluded Pedro Montejo and Fernando Salgado. The exclusion angered both men and brought into the open a dispute that until then had remained within the group.
The same source says Burgueño has briefed Claudia Sheinbaum on Salgado’s movements. Since then, Salgado and Montejo have turned, according to information obtained by this outlet, to firms connected to their circle in an effort to politically damage the mayor’s image.
Pedro Montejo remains in Burgueño’s administration as Tijuana’s secretary of economic development. His relationship with Salgado predates the current municipal government and continues as Montejo builds his own bid to succeed Burgueño as mayor.
Montejo remains inside the municipal government despite Burgueño’s distancing from Salgado. He retains his relationship with the businessman and is building his bid to succeed the mayor from within the same administration.
Marina del Pilar and Armando Ayala connect Julieta to Salgado’s circle
Julieta Ramírez Padilla built her political career within the circle of Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda and continues to have the governor’s support in the contest over who will succeed her. She was a close government official before reaching the Chamber of Deputies and later the Senate.
Ramírez’s political trajectory remains rooted in a group that Los Ángeles Press investigations have previously linked to Fernando Salgado Chávez through Marina del Pilar and Carlos Torres.
The second connection runs through Armando Ayala Robles.
Ramírez and Ayala ran together as Morena’s two Senate candidates in Baja California in the 2024 election, and both won seats in the upper chamber. Their political relationship continued into 2026. On May 30, Ayala sat on the dais during Julieta’s second annual report in Mexicali.
Two weeks later, Ramírez attended Ayala’s report in the same city. In July, when speaking publicly about him, she still called him “my running mate.”
During Ayala’s tenure as mayor of Ensenada, Fernando Salgado maintained close ties with his administration and was later accused of providing resources from his companies to Morena politicians’ campaigns, including Ayala’s.
In November 2025, the FEMDO opened an investigation into Armando Ayala and summoned him as a person under investigation in a case separate from those involving Salgado, Ismael Burgueño and Carlos Torres.
Julieta is also facing an electoral investigation over alleged personalized political promotion, misuse of public resources and possible early campaigning. The complaint reached electoral authorities in March, and Mexico’s Electoral Tribunal determined that the Baja California State Electoral Institute should investigate it. The state Electoral Tribunal later ordered authorities to open proceedings after the complaint had initially been dismissed, and in July the Guadalajara Regional Chamber allowed the investigation to continue.
The promotional campaign remains visible in the streets. In Mexicali, Los Ángeles Press has documented political material posted even on the fences of private homes, featuring the senator’s photograph and the phrase “It’s Julieta,” as she seeks to become Morena’s candidate for governor. The same slogan had begun appearing on walls in Tijuana and Mexicali in March.
The network is spread across the 2027 race
Before Morena chooses its nominee and the other parties finalize their agreements, Salgado and Guakil retain relationships with actors positioned across different fronts of the race. The 2027 election will show how much of that political access ultimately translates into positions of government.
