From Ice to Public Works: Pemex Awards Million-Dollar Contracts to Phantom Company

Petróleos Mexicanos(Pemex) awarded contracts worth more than 740 million pesos to CLR y Asociados, a practically unknown Tabasco-based company. It lacks a track record in the energy sector and has no background in heavy infrastructure.

In 2022, the company received 62.8 million pesos to provide ice bags at facilities in Tabasco and Chiapas. In 2024, it was assigned 508 million more to supply gravel, sand, and clay in oil fields.

Both contracts were awarded directly, without bidding or competition. The justification was a supposed "climatic necessity". CLR y Asociados operates from a dilapidated building in Villahermosa and reports no previous contracts with other public agencies.

The meteoric rise of this company under Morena's regime shows that the 4T has perfected the model of shell companies to divert public resources. Far from being rescued, Pemex has been turned into the ruling party's petty cash.

Tailored awards under the guise of "austerity"

The direct awarding of contracts to inexperienced companies is no longer an exception: it is the new rule under Morena. The excuse of "urgency" has replaced transparency processes, covering up political favoritism practices.

While boasting a "republican austerity", Pemex operates as a political loot. The regime's operators are rewarded with million-dollar contracts, disguised as "operational needs". The justification for the ice supply was the hydration of workers in extreme weather.

Under that same scheme, CLR y Asociados was tasked with rehabilitation works on oil roads, despite lacking any technical experience in construction.

Corruption shielded by Sheinbaum's discourse

Although the contracts began under Andrés Manuel López Obrador's mandate, the current administration of Claudia Sheinbaum not only keeps them but consolidates them. There are no serious audits or consequences. The federal government's silence confirms that corruption is not fought, it is institutionalized.

The "transformation" discourse is a facade that covers up old practices with new attire. Opacity, cronyism, and clientelism are now part of the new regime, reinforced by a propaganda apparatus that sells a false narrative of change.

Far from eradicating the old system, the 4T inherited it, perfected it, and shielded it with narrative and institutional structures that guarantee impunity.

Each direct contract, each opaque award, each deliberate omission is proof of this regime's true legacy: the looting did not end in 2018. It just changed hands and was made official as state policy.