By KELIN DILLON

According to new data released by the Mexican Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit’s Public Account, the real estate holdings of the Mexican Secretariat of Defense (Sedena) have grown by more than 47.3 billion pesos in value throughout the first four years of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) six-year term, placing the total value of Sedena’s 511 properties at 259.9 billion pesos.

At the end of AMLO presidential predecessor Enrique Peña Nieto’s six-year term in 2018, the Sedena reportedly held 505 properties for a value of 216.5 billion pesos. Now, just four years and six additional properties later, the Sedena’s entire real estate portfolio has increased in value by approximately 20 percent.

Sedena-run facilities and projects like the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) and the Tren Maya were not included in the defense secretariat’s property appraisal.

This figure also doesn’t take into account the anticipated absorption of the Mexican National Guard into the Sedena, which is expected to bring in another 160 properties worth 8 billion pesos into the Sedena’s real estate holdings. 

One of the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection’s (SSPC) most expensive properties – the Federal Police’s 1.8 billion peso Iztapalapa Command Center barracks, which include an airport hangar, a heliport and a sports field – will be transferred over to the Sedena during the transition of the National Guard, as well as San Luis Potosí’s 549.2 billion-peso Higher Academy of Public Security and dozens of police stations across the country.