"The King of Cash": What Elena Chávez's Book On AMLO Is About

"Sol Prendido for Borderland Beat

"El Rey del Cash", by Elena Chávez, is a book about the alleged campaign financing of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Learn more.

What is it about?

In the book, Elena Chávez narrates several episodes she lived through with her ex-husband César Yáñez, one of the people closest to President López Obrador.

Through its 28 chapters, the writer places López Obrador and her ex-husband as the two protagonists of this story "full of political betrayals, personal ambitions, infidelities, labor abuses, corruption and authoritarianism.

The woman recounts alleged details of how the president's operatives for a long time obtained billions of pesos to finance and support López Obrador's movement.

Where to buy Elena Chavez's book and price?

The book published by Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial costs 299 pesos and can be purchased through Amazon, as well as bookstores Ghandi and El Sótano.

The digital version of the book costs 199 pesos.

The revelations of the book

In addition to revealing the alleged existence of a network of illicit financing that supported and supported the political aspirations of Lopez Obrador, where "payments of favors" were made, the writer tells that in such acts participated characters such as Alejandro Encinas, Marcelo Ebrard and Claudia Sheinbaum.

Some of her chapters are dedicated, for example, to talk about Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, Marcelo Ebrad, Mario Delgado and Delfina Gómez.

Some episodes of the book also reveal how it was that between 2005 and 2006, during the first presidential campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the modus operandi of this illicit financing was forged.

It also tells how after López Obrador's first presidential defeat by Felipe Calderón, "hatred and revenge" took hold of the politician, feelings that, according to the author, led him to distance himself from his close friend Alberto Pérez Mendoza.

The author also describes each character who allegedly operated in the illicit financing network, the way in which the funds were obtained and what they were invested in.

For example, Ariadna Montiel, current head of the Welfare Secretariat, is said to have used money from the Mexico City Passenger Transport Network (RTP) to provide resources to the presidential campaign of López Obrador in 2012.

While Claudia Sheinbaum, head of government, tells how she won the preference of the founder of the Morena political party by pointing out that her husband, Carlos Imaz, had received cash from the Argentine businessman Carlos Ahumada.

While Mario Delgado, national president of Morena, is told that he gave cash to Lopez Obrador when he was the head of the Ministry of Finance of the Federal District Government, then headed by Marcelo Ebrard.

Thus, in each episode Elena Chávez recounts one by one the alleged facts that show how people who are still present in politics today and are close to López Obrador, have operated and have been involved in this network of financing.

Who is Elena Chávez?

Elena Chávez González is a journalist who graduated from the Carlos Septién García School of Journalism. In the media, she has worked as a reporter for the newspapers Excélsior (1990-1994), Unomásuno (1995) and Ovaciones (1998-2000). In addition, she worked in the area of social communication in the Senate of the Republic in 1996 and in the Ministry of the Interior in 1997, during the six-year term of Ernesto Zedillo.

From 2001 to 2014 she was part of the government of Mexico City, as a public servant during the six-year term of López Obrador and Marcelo Ebrard, as well as for two years with Miguel Ángel Mancera. In 2016, she became a constituent deputy of Mexico City for the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

According to the author's Twitter account, she is also an animal rights activist . For more than 11 years she created the organization Ángeles Abandonados in defense of human rights, with which she seeks to "end cruelty against non-human animals and dismantle the groups that exploit animals as a modus vivendi".

Chávez González was the partner of César Yáñez, one of the men closest to López Obrador during his time in the PRD and the Mexico City government.

They later separated and Yáñez married businesswoman Dulce María Silva, during the first days of López Obrador's six-year term.

Elena Chávez

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