Who is Javier Garza Calderon, the entrepreneur interested in acquiring Banamex?

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador assured that Javier Garza Calderón told him that he and a group of investors were interested in buying Banco Nacional de México (Banamex). "José Javier Garza Calderón, from Nuevo León, sent me a message that they could also get together with other investors to buy the bank," said the president in a video posted on social networks.

Javier Garza Calderón is part of the fourth generation of the Garza family, known in Monterrey, Nuevo León, for being the founder of Cervecería Cuauhtémoc. Currently, Garza Calderón is founder and representative of a business group that supports the current administration of President López Obrador and calls itself "Empresarios por la Cuarta Transformación Nacional" (E4T).

"The E4T association in collaboration and coordination with the new Federal Government must be fundamental to agree on initiatives that improve the conditions for growth and development of the country's micro, small and medium-sized companies," highlights the organization's website. Garza Calderón is also the founder of the company Grupo Domos, which in the '90s acquired Telefónica Cubana and was accused by the United States for alleged violation of trade laws.

This purchase included investments of 706 million dollars and was attended by Cuban leader Fidel Castro and former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Subsequently, this company evolved and was renamed ONEO MX, where it offers services in infrastructure, environment, energy, real estate, and industrial development, among other areas. Javier Garza Calderón is the founder of Patronato Prosur ABP, a private charitable association whose main purpose is to generate rural micro-entrepreneurs.

Salinas Pliego, Slim and Hank González, AMLO's candidates to buy Banamex. President López Obrador celebrated that Ricardo Salinas Pliego, owner of Grupo Salinas and Banco Azteca, has raised his hand to buy Banamex. "He already owns Banco Azteca and I believe he has enough resources to do so. The same could be said of Carlos Slim, owner of Inbursa, Carlos Hank González, Banorte, and others," said the President.

López Obrador expressed his wish for Banamex to be bought by a Mexican businessman or banker, since it is a bank "that belonged to Mexicans" and was later privatized. He added that the sale of Citibanamex will be positive for public finances since with it taxes would have to be paid to the Tax Administration Service (SAT). "(In 2001) they should have paid about three billion dollars in taxes, but they did not pay us anything and that is already history. We are not closed, we are not against foreigners, but we would like the bank to be Mexicanized," the president concluded.

Source: El Sol de Mexico