Villahermosa, Tab.— “To know if a ruler is truly a statesman or a simple idiot in command, it is enough to see the quality of the political group that surrounds him,” he said. Humberto Mayans in a hotel in the Historic Center of Tabasco January 5, 2001; quoting Carlos Madrazobegan his resignation speech from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
That year, after the annulment of the victory of Manuel Andrade as governor in Tabasco, the Tabasco politics —as well as the PRI national with the triumph of Vicente Fox— he fell apart and that was the opportunity he took advantage of Adam Augusto Lopez Hernandez to position himself as a possible interim governor.
The internal division of the PRI and the ties it maintained with the PRD —since childhood with Andrés Manuel López Obradorand the fact that his sister Rosalinda was already a federal representative for Sol Azteca—, in addition to the prestige that his family held in Tabasco, gave him the credentials to catapult himself to be governor for a year.
Brother-in-law of Adán Augusto López, with extensive experience in the PRI and its governments; With AMLO he was appointed advisor to Pemex. Photo: Special
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It is those ties and it is that time in which Adán Augusto López builds his extensive capacity for political operation in Tabasco and weaves what 20 years later will be his Eden.
Manuel Andrade had just been named leader of the state PRI and responded to Mayans —brother-in-law of Adán Augusto López—: “You cannot be a PRI member by day and a PRD member by night. We are not running away from anyone, but Tabasco needs political definitions.”
A week later, the then general secretary of the tricolor party in Tabasco, Adán Augusto López, took the same definition: “Putting my will at the service of Tabasco, privileging political agreements and for the sake of the unity of all Tabasco residents, I recognize the governor Enrique Priego as the one who currently has before him the historical responsibility of directing the destinies of the state.
In the government of Adán Augusto López he was appointed president of the Superior Court of Justice; Upon his departure there was a close friend. Photo: Special
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“Consequently, I decline my aspirations to head the interim government of Tabasco,” Adan Augusto read in front of the media.
“If Adán Augusto López had been interim governor in 2001, he definitely would not have been constitutional governor in 2019. What would have been better? I don’t know, but, without a doubt, things for Tabasco would be immensely different,” he assures. Juan José Rodríguez Prats a THE UNIVERSAL in a restaurant in Galerías Tabasco, on October 1, 2025.
Rodríguez Prats The tape returns 25 years and remembers that Roberto Madrazo called him on the phone: “We have to define the interim governor and I want you to be on the shortlist.” The then senator of PAN He responded: “Wait, I’ll see you at Fifth!” After discussing it among several, Governor Roberto Madrazo’s shortlist was as follows: Enrique Priego Oropeza, Adán Augusto López Hernández and Jorge Abdó Francis. Rodríguez Prats called Enrique Priego and told him: “Madrazo has opted for Adán and will propose that he be the interim one.”
“That’s great, brother. I’ve just come from approving the budget and, honestly, I just want to lie down in the hammock,” Priego was sincere.
He became the political “godfather” of several young people from Tabasco who joined the PRI before he joined the ranks of the PAN, the last party in which he was a member. Photo: Special
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At the same time, Adán Augusto López called the PRD leaders to inform them: “Madrazo accepts that I look for her; I only need your support to reach consensus, and in exchange you will have the Government and Finance Secretariats.”
“And before which Legislature are you going to protest? Madrazo is illegal, what is legal is that you protest on January 1 before the 57th Legislature,” his father told him. Payambe Lopez Falconi when he returned from Quinta Grijalva. Then, Adán Augusto knew that he needed the approval of the PRD as the second political force in the Tabasco Congress to guarantee his interim term.
“But it wasn’t like that,” he wrote. Jesusa Cervantes in his chronicle published in EL UNIVERSAL on Wednesday, January 3.
Roberto Madrazo slapped his hand and Enrique Priego jumped out of the hammock, bathed and changed to take his oath as interim governor of Tabasco in the last minutes of Sunday, December 31, 2000.
Jaime Lastra and Adán Augusto López met in the government of Manuel Gurría and began an extensive political collaboration. Photo: Special
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Juan José Rodríguez Prats arrived at 02:30 in the morning on January 1 to Congress. “I am truly stunned by what is happening. I just spoke with Madrazo and told him that this cannot be, the 56th Legislature does not have the power to appoint an interim governor,” he mentioned as he approached the plenary session.
“They already saw me as ugly in the PRI because of what I said to Herminio Blanco on the platform,” he smiles. Lorena Beaurregard remembering that September 28, 2000.
She lights a cigarette, sitting in her kitchen, she admits to EL UNIVERSAL that she had been part of the dissident PRI members that the engineer left within the party. Cuauhtemoc Cardenasnot by his orders, but because his ideals germinated in them.
She never left her activism in the PRI and this distanced her from the political group formed around Adán Augusto López. Photo: Archive / EL UNIVERSAL
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“Secretary of Commerce and Industrial Development, Herminio Blanco, welcome to this velvety appearance!” he blurted out. Beaurregard to the surprise of all the PRI members in San Lázaro. “I came down from the platform amidst the ovations of the PAN and the PRD,” he remembers in 2025.
She is the one with whom Adán Augusto López spoke for more than an hour at the PRI headquarters in Tabasco. They were waiting for him outside the office. Alejandro Torres and Roberto Barbozasent reporter and correspondent for EL UNIVERSAL. In the interview, the then general secretary of the tricolor admitted that not giving up his aspiration to be interim governor “could cause serious damage to his party, it could divide it.”
Four days before, on January 1, PRI members Lorena Beaurregard, Arturo Nunez and Humberto Mayans gave a press conference and urged the party to dialogue. They supported Adán Augusto López being the interim governor and not Enrique Priego, “an imposition of the Madracistas,” they said.
Jaime Lastra (left), former prosecutor of Tabasco, and Carlos Manuel Merino (right), substitute governor of Adán Augusto López, in the last six-year term. Photo: Special
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The same day the 57th Legislature was installed in the midst of chaos. The highest point of the dispute between PRI members and PRD members came when the deputy Rodriguez —now governor of Tabasco— took the stand and practically began to direct the session, he asked the secretary if there was a quorum to vote for Lopez Hernandez as interim governor.
“That’s what I learned in the PRI,” says Juan José Rodríguez Prats. For this reason, in the 80s he called Guadalupe Cano de Ocampoa prominent Tabasco jurist, to ask him if at the Superior Court of Justice of Tabasco he had met young lawyers who stood out for their profile to enter politics.
“Payambé’s son, the one who just arrived from France, they say he is serene, kind and a good lawyer,” he responded. That’s why Rodríguez Prats looked for him.
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In 1992, when he was about to leave the Government Secretariat in Tabasco, he met with Enrique Priego, one of his first political “godsons” and whom the governor Manuel Gurría put in charge of the secretariat.
“I suggested that he reactivate the two undersecretaries that I suppressed. He asked me who I proposed for those positions and I did not hesitate: Adán Augusto López and Jaime Humberto Lastra. I had a close and friendly relationship with Jaime, I met him in the Venustiano Carranza delegation, with Humberto Mayans, he had experience in the Judicial Police and he helped us with the security issue.”
A few days later, Juan José Rodríguez Prats says in 2025, “when I am about to leave the Government Secretariat, Jaime arrives and takes me to Hernán Bermúdez and tells me that he wants to appoint him as his second in the Directorate of Public Security. I tell him ‘you name and ask for results, don’t consult me’. There I meet Bermúdez,” he remembers.
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“That’s how we all met him.” [a Bermúdez]in the Gurría government. He was always a polite, kind guy. It was said that he was a scoundrel, but regarding the issue of security, they said: ‘for the wedge to press, it has to be of the same suit,’” underlines Lorena Beaurregard.
In 2019, when Adán Augusto López assumed office as constitutional governor of Tabasco, two names from that history stand out on the board of his government: Enrique Priego, who became president of the Superior Court of Justice of Tabasco, and Jaime Lastra, attorney general of the state.
“Tabasco came from a very difficult situation of violence with Arturo Núñez, I believe that both Jorge Aguirre and Ángel Mario Balcázar were good profiles, but they could not control the situation and he surpassed them, honestly. That is where Lastra recommends to Adán to place Bermúdez,” recalls Lorena Beaurregard.
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Thus, by December 11, 2019, with Morena governing the Executive and Legislative Branches in Tabasco, Adán Augusto López Hernández also controlled the Judiciarythe state prosecutor’s office and had as police chief someone known at least 20 years ago, Hernán Bermúdez Requena.
It was during the government of Manuel Gurría when, at the end, Adán Augusto López received the 27th notary of Tabasco and Jaime Lastra, the 30th.
The first dedicated himself to his work as a “very successful” notary, confirms Beurregard. “He did a lot of business, we all knew it,” he says. The other dedicated himself to continuing in security and government positions. And, since then, she always pulled him everywhere, says Lorena Beaurregard.
—Who was pulling who?
—Well, Lastra to Hernán Bermúdez, he was her protector.
During the years that Adán Augusto López Hernández did not actively participate in the public servicetheir political relations were not frozen; On the contrary, they flourished in the business field and became one.
By December 2019, Adán Augusto controlled the three Powers, the state prosecutor’s office and had an acquaintance of years, Hernán Bermúdez Requena, as head of the police. Photo: Archive / EL UNIVERSAL
The house of Hernán Bermúdez, which in 2023 was attacked with bullets allegedly by members of organized crime. Photo: Alejandra Canchola / EL UNIVERSAL
