Ex-Pemex Director Out-Earned Mexico's President, Disclosure Reveals

Víctor Rodríguez Padilla, the physicist who ran Mexico's state oil giant Pemex last year, made more money than the president of the country. His 2025 wealth disclosure filing shows 1,937,882 pesos in salary, roughly $95,000 USD, while President Claudia Sheinbaum reported 1,791,441 pesos for the same period. The difference is 146,441 pesos, or about $7,200.

That gap matters because Mexico's Constitution explicitly says it shouldn't exist. Article 127 is clear: no public servant can earn more than the person running the executive branch. "Ninguna persona servidora pública podrá recibir remuneración por el desempeño de su función, empleo, cargo o comisión mayor a la establecida para la persona titular del Ejecutivo Federal," the text reads.

Rodríguez Padilla's filing cuts across a simple principle written into the country's highest law. For international readers, picture the CEO of a state-owned oil company in any country quietly collecting a paycheck bigger than the head of state's, in plain violation of the constitution. That is what happened here.

The disclosure, submitted to Mexico's Public Administration Ministry, covers a full year at the helm of Pemex. Rodríguez Padilla stepped into the role in October 2024 and served until President Sheinbaum replaced him this March with Mario Marcelo Mejía Barajas. His 2025 salary reflects about five months as director plus the remainder of the year in other Pemex roles.

Rodríguez Padilla is not your typical oil executive. He earned a physics degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he met Sheinbaum as a fellow student. He later completed a doctorate in Energy Economics at the University of Grenoble in France. Before taking the top job, he served as an advisor in Pemex's Office of Professional Counselors from 2019 to 2024.

His personal finances tell a straightforward story. The filing shows no investments, no bank accounts, and no debts. He reported buying a 90-square-meter apartment for 1.5 million pesos in cash in February 2024, a month before he started working at Pemex. The day before he took the job, he bought furniture and a computer for 70,000 pesos. Those are his only notable assets.

The cash purchase of an apartment is unusual but not suspicious on its face. He had been working at UNAM's Energy Research Center for years before joining Pemex, and his academic career included research and teaching roles that typically pay middle-class wages in Mexico. The 1.5 million peso price tag (roughly $73,000) is reasonable for a small apartment in Mexico City, though the all-cash transaction stands out in a country where most real estate purchases involve mortgages.

What This Means for Pemex and The Government

The salary discrepancy puts the Sheinbaum administration in an awkward position. The president campaigned on austerity and promised to clean up Pemex, a company long plagued by corruption, inefficiency, and massive debt. She has positioned herself as a leader who practices what she preaches on government spending, taking a salary cut compared to her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who earned about 1.8 million pesos annually.

Her administration argues the gap is a technical reporting issue stemming from how Pemex structures executive compensation, which includes bonuses and benefits that complicate direct comparisons. Pemex officials say Rodríguez Padilla's total package includes performance-based pay and hazard premiums tied to the oil industry, categories that do not apply to the president's salary.

Rodríguez Padilla's defenders say his academic pedigree and specialized expertise justify a premium salary, and that the constitutional cap applies to base pay rather than total compensation. Critics say that is a distinction without a difference and that the law is clear. Article 127 does not carve out exceptions for state-owned enterprises or technical roles.

The optics are bad. Pemex generates about 33 percent of Mexico's federal budget revenue and carries roughly $105 billion in debt, making it the most indebted oil company in the world. Sheinbaum needs the company to perform while also cutting costs, and having her hand-picked director earning more than she does undercuts the message. The contrast is especially sharp given that Sheinbaum has made transparency a pillar of her administration's brand.

Rodríguez Padilla was removed in March 2026 as part of a broader reshuffle at Pemex. His successor, Mejía Barajas, has not yet filed a disclosure for 2026, so it is unclear whether the new director is also earning more than the president. The administration has not said whether it plans to audit past disclosures or adjust compensation to comply with Article 127.

For now, the constitution is clear, the filing is public, and the numbers do not lie. Whether the government treats it as a paperwork problem or a constitutional violation will say a lot about how serious Sheinbaum is about transparency at Mexico's most important state enterprise.