Governor Samuel García promotes the candidacy of his wife, Mariana Rodríguez Cantú, for the governorship of Nuevo León in 2027. The strategy includes the promotion of an electoral reform of gender parity that would force a woman to run, as well as the investment of millions of pesos in social networks to expose his project “Amar a Nuevo León”. In addition, the high spending on official advertising by the state government is highlighted and the INE sanction to Movimiento Ciudadano and the couple for their support in the 2021 campaign is recalled.
Mexico City, December 17 (However). -The Government of Nuevo Leon who heads the emecista Samuel García Sepúlveda Not only is he paving the way for his wife Mariana Rodríguez Cantú to the governorship through the push that his administration has given to a parity reform that will force all parties to nominate a woman in 2027but also through the exhibition of Amar a Nuevo León, the government project that the First Lady of New Leon leads in an “honorary” manner, into which she has poured millions of pesos into social networks, an exhibition that is added to that carried out by the state government, one of the five that spends the most on advertising.
Since last week, the Government of Nuevo León has made it clear that it will not modify its Electoral Reform proposal that would allow only women to compete for the governorship in 2027. The legislation has been seen as a dedication to Mariana Rodríguez Cantú, who in 2024 ran and lost the Mayor of Monterrey that was in the hands of the Citizen Movement party, which had to hand it over to the PRI member Adrián de la Garza.
The maneuver promoted by the Government of Samuel García uses the criteria of gender parity as is happening in San Luis Potosí with Governor Ricardo Gallardo Cardona, who seeks to leave as his wife, Senator Ruth González Silva, of the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM), the ally in power in turn that has turned a deaf ear to the call of the President and Morena to comply since the midterm election of 2027, and not wait until 2030, the reform that prohibits immediate succession through family members in elected positions.
“We have to see if that is within the Constitution because it is different to say ‘let’s see, apply half men and half women and then let the people decide’, than to say ‘it is mandatory to be a woman in the next period’. That is what we have to see, whether or not it is within the Constitution. Now, on the issue of relatives who consecutively have the election, you know my opinion. In fact, it has already been approved in Congress: that, by 2030, there cannot be direct relatives, until the fourth level, that they can occupy the same popularly elected position; they would have to wait a while to occupy it again. And in the case of Morena, they said that they would do so from the 27th,” President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo pointed out on Monday when questioned about the issue.
In the case of Nuevo León, the proposal for the joint reform occurs just when surveys have begun to be disseminated in which the name of Mariana Rodríguez Cantú appears, a network personality whose support for her husband in the 2021 electoral campaign was sanctioned by the National Electoral Institute (INE), which imposed a fine of 55.7 million pesos on Movimiento Ciudadano and her partner.
In fact, Governor Samuel García is one of the governors who allocates the most to social communication and advertising spending. The Official Advertising 2024 report, the Article 19 organization points out that during that year, Nuevo León was the fifth state that spent the most in this area with 561 million 44 thousand 884 pesos, a figure that placed it only below Guanajuato, Quintana Roo, Chihuahua and Coahuila. For this 2025, with Cut to September, the Government of Samuel García reports an expense of 390 million 421 thousand 505 pesos with three months left in the year.
Social networks are one of the showcases where you can see the waste that the state government makes in promoting not only the management of Samuel García but also his wife, Mariana Rodríguez.
For example, between November 2021 and July 2025, the Government of Nuevo León paid for 16 ads on its official Facebook profile with a general amount of 900 thousand pesos in ads in which the image of Mariana Rodríguez Cantú was openly promoted, according to the Meta Ad Library.
In his profile on the same social network, Governor Samuel García spent more than 13 million pesos between January 2022 and last October in publications in which he mentions and disseminates photos with Mariana Rodríguez, who is the owner of Amar a Nuevo León, an office in which he does not receive a salary and which does not use public resources, according to the state administration, even though a series of Rodríguez Cantú events have been disseminated throughout the year.
In turn, Mariana Rodríguez has spent 3 million 201 thousand 627 pesos in 163 Facebook ads in the last 3 months where she promotes her work and that of Samuel García in Nuevo León. “In these 4 years we have worked to build a new, more inclusive Nuevo León, where all people have a place, a voice and better opportunities,” says one of the ads, for example. In another he states: “4 years working every day to care for and protect the girls, boys and adolescents who need it most, strengthening the tools and support to guarantee their healthy development and safety.”
And in one more it advertises: “In Nuevo León we take care of those who care with “We Help Women”. In addition to financial support they can also access transportation (sic) and free medical insurance, with this we seek to give a break to all the caregivers and heads of families who give everything to raise their children.”
In a previous review, reporter Arturo Daen from the SinEmbargo Data Unit exposed how Governor Samuel García and his wife Mariana Rodríguez Cantú squandered millions of pesos between August and October to publicize the Emecista’s Fourth Government Report; that Nuevo León will host the Soccer World Cup and family photos, in the style of an electoral campaign. In his personal Facebook and Instagram accounts, payments of 10 million pesos were recorded from July 15 to date.
At that time, Julieta López, spokesperson for the Government of Nuevo León, said that this advertising on the Meta networks was paid for by the Governor himself and his wife, but there is data that casts doubt on that statement. Several of the ads on Samuel García’s account include videos and posters from the state government campaign.
In addition, the politician reported having an average annual income of 4.5 million since 2021, with a maximum of 7 million in 2024, and advertisements for 6.1 million pesos appear in his name in just three months.
“They cannot and should not be paid with public resources because it is illegal. We have never done it. They are covered with their own resources. Meta specifies it clearly because the expense is transparent. On their personal pages, what is stated, they pay for it. With their personal resources,” the Nuevo León Government official told SinEmbargo.