According to research conducted by Ricardo Sevilla, of the website regeneration, Actors Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna received more than 160 million pesos (US $ 8 million) in donations during the six years of Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto, through their civil association Ambulant.
“From 2009 to 2012, during the Calderonist administration, Ambulant AC received a total of 35 million 336,000 534 pesos (US $ 1.7 million),” Seville details in its report. “From 2013 to 2018, during the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, the association of García Bernal i Luna managed to raise this figure four times more, reaching … 133 million 737,000 742 pesos (US $ 6.6 million).”
According to documents submitted by Seville to the portal Regeneración-linked to the political party Bruna-García Bernal and Luna began to receive public money from 2009. Government contributions to Ambulant AC increased each year during the administration of Calderón Hinojosa until reaching a maximum of 18.4 million pesos in 2012 (US $ 920,000).
Although Calderón handed over the presidency to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 2012, through Peña Nieto, the famous Mexican actors were not affected by the change in power.
“The more than 35 million pesos (US $ 1.7 million) that the calderonismo gave in three years to Documentary Traveling AC, paled before the 133 million 737,000 742 pesos (US $ 6.6 million) that the government of Enrique Peña Nieto delivered as a donation “, adds Sevilla in its text.
According to the documents exhibited in the report, in the last two years of the administration of Peña Nieto, García Bernal and Luna received in donations more than 77 million pesos (US $ 3.9 million), a figure that began to decrease as a result of the arrival of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to the presidency.
During the first year of López Obrador’s government, Ambulant AC received more than 25 million pesos (US $ 1.2 million). However, in 2020 this figure decreased to just over 10 million pesos (US $ 500,000).
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According to anonymous sources consulted by Seville, both actors are upset by the disappearance of government trusts to support cinema, because this directly affected them.
“They were used to receiving millions and now that López Obrador has taken away their trusts, they are throwing foam in their mouths. You just have to check how much wool they put in during Peña Nieto and Calderón’s six years to realize why they are so angry “, said a person from the group L’Altre Crew, made up of former workers of Ambulant AC
Another source accused García Bernal y Luna of reselling the same project to all state governments in Mexico for more resources. “They are cheaters! They sell them to state secretaries of culture a product for which they have already charged five or six times,” said a person who spoke on condition of anonymity.
So far neither García Bernal nor Lluna have issued a position on the investigation into the public money they have accessed.
With information fromregeneration.