Chiapas family disputes metalworker's role in fuel-theft case
Original reporting: Luces del Siglo
What happened
Relatives of Rodolfo Hernández Sánchez say he never signed documents linking him to Petronucloe Servicios. Luces del Siglo reports that the family protested his federal detention and challenged records identifying him as a petroleum engineer and shareholder.
Reporting and context
The family of Chiapas metalworker Rodolfo Hernández Sánchez is alleging identity theft after federal authorities detained him over his purported role as a shareholder in a company linked to suspected fuel theft in Veracruz, according to Luces del Siglo.
Relatives say Hernández, a resident of Benito Juárez in San Fernando municipality, never signed documents to join Petronucloe Servicios. They dispute company records describing him as a petroleum engineer and shareholder, saying he completed secondary school and last worked as a municipal police officer in 2019.
His wife said his voter identification card was the only document connecting him to the company. His son said signatures on other documents resembled his grandfather's, but maintained that his father had not signed them. The family also said Hernández had never left their community and questioned the alleged connection to a fuel-theft scheme roughly 547 kilometers away in Veracruz.
Luces del Siglo reported that his wife, Martha Claudia, described two agents initially arriving at their home to request metalwork. In her account, Hernández was taken away at about 9:30 a.m. on October 14, transferred between vehicles and driven toward Veracruz. She rejected an allegation that he had rented a vessel used to store fuel.
Residents marched along Tuxtla Gutiérrez's Avenida Central to the Chiapas government palace, asking Governor Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar and President Claudia Sheinbaum to intervene. The family is seeking his release and an explanation of how his identity became associated with the business.
The report cites Public Registry of Commerce records showing that Petronucloe Servicios, S.A. de C.V. was incorporated in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, on February 1, 2019, with initial capital of 300,000 pesos. Its registered activities include excavation, extraction and maintenance of oil wells in Mexico and abroad.
Those records list Juan Pedro Valentín Santos Morales as the other shareholder and Jorge Alberto Padilla Acevedo as the company's general legal representative for litigation and debt collection. The family's account challenges the description of Hernández in the company documents; the report does not establish how those documents were created.