Guadalupe Taddei Zavala resigned Sunday, Oct. 26, as president of the National Electoral Institute (INE), after months of scandals over contracts, phantom drivers and ties to suppliers. The exit comes as the 2026-2027 federal electoral process, begun Sept. 10, is under way.
- Audit: On Oct. 24 the Auditoría Superior de la Federación (ASF) confirmed it was investigating irregularities in INE contracts worth 514 million pesos tied to supplier José Alfredo Hernández Casillas.
- Zeg: Corporativo Zeg, with five registered employees, won 184 million pesos and transferred 167 million to four firms; the ASF called it triangulation.
- State trail: Cajas Graf and Zeg contracts reach back to Sonora, Chihuahua, Oaxaca and a Sonoran transparency body.
- Payroll: A driver held a legal power for Zeg; a longtime aide listed as project leader performed driving and food duties.
The audit and Zeg transfers
The ASF’s Oct. 24 confirmation covered 514 million pesos in INE contracts awarded to Hernández Casillas’s companies. Corporativo Zeg, despite only five employees on record, obtained 184 million pesos and moved 167 million to four other firms—a triangulation, according to the audit office.
The trail predates the INE. At the Instituto Electoral de Sonora, Taddei awarded Cajas Graf 46,879,000 pesos; the firm is represented by Hernández Casillas and brother Raymundo Francisco. Chihuahua’s Instituto Estatal Electoral, then led by Claudia Arlett Espino, gave Cajas Graf 33,881,653 pesos after a tender with only two companies from the same group. Arlett Espino later served as Taddei’s INE executive secretary until resigning Sept. 9.
In 2024, Iliana Araceli Hernández Gómez, as Oaxaca electoral institute executive secretary, assigned 32,426,000 pesos to Zeg, Cajas Graf’s sister company; Taddei later placed her in the INE gender equality unit. In 2022, while heading the Instituto Sonorense de Transparencia, Taddei signed a 1,231,000-peso annual lease with Inmobiliaria Alta Sierra, linked to Gov. Alfonso Durazo’s family. Sen. Lilly Téllez sought her appearance in 2025; Morena shelved it. In 2025, Taddei’s son Luis Rogelio Piñeda Taddei moved from Sonora’s legal counsel to Durazo’s personal secretariat.
Appointments, awards and payroll
At the INE, Taddei made Jesús Octavio García González administration director; he had been legal representative for Cajas Graf and Zeg. The appointment was denounced to the Órgano Interno de Control (OIC), and he left in April 2026. In 2025 the INE voided a tender in which Cajas Graf and TOL had technical failings, then awarded them about 197 million pesos directly for judicial-election materials. El Universal in September 2026 reported 6,279,000 pesos in fees to eight INE workers from 2023 to 2025, services not documented before the OIC.
Reforma reported Oct. 19 that Jonathan Navarrete Torres, the president’s driver at 45,765 pesos monthly, had held since June 2023 a legal power for Zeg lawsuits and collections; he omitted it from his June 2026 asset declaration. Workers said they did not know him or see him in the offices. On Oct. 21 the paper reported Luis Alberto Bustamante Canizales, Taddei’s collaborator since Sonora, listed as “líder de proyecto” at 69,890 pesos monthly while driving and preparing her food. Taddei acknowledged Bustamante as an “asistente personalizado”; she accepted Navarrete worked at the INE but gave no detailed explanation of his Zeg link.
From late 2025 to April 2026, Taddei used an armored BMW X5 worth over 2 million pesos, outside the INE fleet and absent from the Registro Público Vehicular. She called it a loan but did not name the lender.
Paris, the voter ID and the exit
Recordings on Carlos Loret de Mola’s newscast showed Jorge Francisco Piñeda Taddei, her son, with Hernández Casillas in a luxury Paris hotel. On Oct. 22, Reforma published images of Taddei with Hernández Casillas, who helped organize her 2025 birthday and a December toast over the voter-ID production contract, worth 1,173 million pesos.
Days before quitting, Taddei said she would not leave the INE. Her resignation followed the ASF’s confirmation of the 514 million pesos in questionable contracts, with the electoral calendar already moving. The INE must now rebuild its leadership while the audit and the 2026-2027 process continue.