The party that dominates Mexico came to power preaching support for the common people, with members often reciting a motto, “For the good of all, the poor first.”
So voters have been shaking their heads recently when Morena members began showing up at fancy hotels abroad, wearing what looks like expensive clothing and jewelry, and holding millions in outside income.
How could the party of the people, voters have asked, enjoy such wealth?
“It does shock you a little,” said Enrique Rodríguez, 23, an architecture student in Mexico City who voted for Claudia Sheinbaum, Morena’s presidential candidate, last year. He said that past leaders had even more extravagant lifestyles, but that the behavior of some current officials had caused “disappointment.”
The party, he said, was “supposed to be trying to make a change.”
That politicians are enjoying luxuries is not surprising, especially not in Mexico, where corruption is a longstanding problem. Anger over the issue helped deliver Morena the presidency in 2018 and 2024, and the leftist party has published statistics that show it is lifting up the poor as past governments never did.
But the disconnect between Morena officials’ public statements and the lifestyles of certain politicians has created a firestorm in Mexico — and frustration among Mexicans — that voters and analysts said could have a lasting effect.
“I’ve seen such a clear, furious and resounding response against these individuals,” said Vanessa Romero Rocha, a political analyst. “People are offended and betrayed.”
The various controversies, she said, have potentially caused “irreparable damage” to Morena, although it does not face midterm elections until 2027.
President Sheinbaum, when asked about such criticism, has said that party members answer first and foremost to voters. “We are judged by the people,” she recently said.
Those remarks came in response to a question about one of Morena’s biggest controversies, involving the party secretary, Andrés Manuel López Beltrán, who is also the son of Ms. Sheinbaum’s mentor and predecessor as president.
Mr. López Beltrán’s father, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, rose from a small town in the Mexican countryside to become a political icon. He founded Morena and remains immensely popular among voters, in part for having slashed government salaries, his own included; broadened welfare programs to help the poor and marginalized; and ditched the large presidential residence and jet.
“There can be no rich government if people are poor,” Mr. López Obrador often said, a phrase repeated by Ms. Sheinbaum, who took office last fall.
Eyebrows also were raised at another prominent politician, Senator Adán Augusto López Hernández, when a local news outlet reported last week that he received nearly $4.3 million in private income in 2023 and 2024.
In an interview, Mr. López Hernández confirmed the income amount and said he had disclosed it properly, adding that the money was earned from private legal work, rental income, interest payments and a family inheritance.
“I can earn money from my professional services or as an entrepreneur, that’s not prohibited,” he said. “As long as it’s OK with the authorities.”
Morena is made up of a wide range of politicians, including hard-line leftists, moderates and people who joined from other parties. In May, the party tightened its ethical guidelines, saying that consuming and displaying “signs of material ostentation such as jewelry, exclusive designer clothing, high-value properties or cars, luxury restaurants or tourism” ran counter to its principles.
“The trappings of power belong to a past of corruption and privilege,” it said.
But recent months were littered with images suggesting opulence. In late July, when the former president’s son was seen at the breakfast buffet of a $400-a-night hotel in Tokyo, the backlash was swift in the Mexican media and online.
A local news outlet, citing the receipt of his two-week stay, reported that Mr. López Beltrán spent nearly $2,600 at a hotel restaurant. That article fueled further outrage, with many noting that the average Mexican household earns roughly $1,400 per month.
The Morena party did not respond to a request for comment. The head of the party said this summer that Mr. López Beltrán does not make more than $5,400 a month. In a public letter in August, Mr. López Beltrán admitted to the nightly cost of the hotel, but said he used his own money. (He did not comment on the authenticity of the reported bill.)
He called much of the criticism against him “a political lynching campaign steeped in hatred, classism, and slander.”
He added that he had learned from a young age “that power is humility, that austerity is a matter of principle, and that we must live in a just middle ground.”
But his case was not the only one to provoke outrage. Some officials have been spotted with what appeared to be expensive clothing, watches and cars. The education secretary, Mario Delgado Carrillo, was seen at an expensive hotel in Portugal, and a powerful federal deputy, Ricardo Monreal, eating at one in Spain, leading Ms. Sheinbaum to say that officials had the right to take vacations with personal funds.
But she also called for modesty. “Power is humility, and that must be demonstrated in every action we take,” she said.
Neither Mr. Monreal nor Mr. Delgado Carrillo responded to a request for comment.
Mr. Monreal said in late July that he had not left Mexico in years because of work, and that the trip to Spain was to celebrate his wedding anniversary.
“It was neither improper nor illegal nor immoral,” he said, adding that as long as the trip was paid for with his own money and didn’t interfere with his duties, “it shouldn’t offend” the public.
Mr. Delgado Carrillo also said that he used his own money for his Portugal trip, “without neglecting my responsibilities.” He earns $85,000 in yearly salary, according to government figures.
Scrutiny has also fallen on Senator Gerardo Fernández Noroña, a prominent and outspoken Morena politician who has quoted Karl Marx approvingly and claimed in 2021 that he did not have any money.
Many voters were recently surprised to learn that Mr. Fernández Noroña had two cars and a 13,000-square-foot home with an estimated value of $650,000. Critics called that a steep sum for a lawmaker who earns roughly $98,000 in yearly salary, according to government figures.
The senator has said that he bought the house on credit last year, adding that he can spend his money however he wants.
“I have no obligation to be austere,” he said at a recent event. “It’s the public policies that are austere.”
In a message to The New York Times, he said that journalists were making “attacks over truly trivial things,” calling it “terrible.”
Some voters said that the signs of wealth suggested that Morena politicians were becoming out of touch.
“They’re traveling, well dressed, expensive cars and the extreme poverty is where?” said María Rodríguez, a 50-year-old in Mexico City. “Go to the mountains in Chiapas and extreme poverty exists.”
But others simply shrugged.
Margarito Correa, 81, a retiree who voted for Morena presidential candidates, said he was grateful to receive pension payments for the elderly that have grown fivefold under Morena.
But politicians living large? “It’s the same story,” he said.
Galia García Palafox contributed reporting from Mexico City.
James Wagner covers Latin America, including sports, and is based in Mexico City. A Nicaraguan American from the Washington area, he is a native Spanish speaker.
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