With the passing of the hours since she was crowned Miss Universe 2025, the triumph of the Mexican Fátima Bosch, 25, has been clouded by a scandal of political and financial interests that continues to grow.
Resignations of judges, accusations of fraud to benefit the Tabasco woman and allegations of the long political history of the winner’s family are mixed with the alleged economic motive of the owner of the pageant, the Mexican businessman Raúl Rocha Cantú.
Since Fátima Bosch won, a couple of months ago, the Miss Universe Mexico contest, in Guadalajara, until now being the fourth national representative with the Miss Universe title, the controversy has not abandoned her and now the important political links of her family with the Fourth Transformation come to light.
Mónica Fernández Balboa, director of the Institute to Return the Stolen to the People (Indep) since October 1, 2024, is Fátima’s aunt and sister of her mother, Vanessa Fernández Balboa.
Mónica Fernández Balboa has a long political career. Senator of Morena for Tabasco in 2018, the year in which Andrés Manuel López Obrador became President, she has also chaired the Government Commission, where she has addressed issues of security, migration and transparency. In the LXIV Legislature she was elected President of the Senate, with 110 votes, one of the broadest support recorded in the Upper House, and during her time as a federal representative (2006-2009) she promoted the first Law for a Life Free of Violence against Women.
Her work did not prevent her from traveling to Thailand in order to support her niece in the Miss Universe pageant.
“Fátima is wonderful, we love her (…) We are happy for her,” said the official, in an interview with a Tabasco media outlet, after her countrywoman’s triumph.
His victory was also celebrated by well-known Morenista figures, among which the sons of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador Andy López Beltrán and José Ramón López Beltrán stand out; the Governor of Tabasco, Javier May, and the president of Morena, Luisa María Alcalde Luján.
On social networks, some users recalled that the brother of the fourth Mexican Miss Universe, Bernardo Bosch Fernández, works in the Mexican Senate as an advisor to Senator Verónica Camino, from Morena.
Others came out to defend Fatima Bosch against any suspicion: “The right is disgusting by criticizing our queen Fatima,” said a user on X.
“First, Tabasco conquered Mexico; then, the universe,” another account retweeted, with photos of López Obrador, also from Tabasco, and Fátima Bosch with the crown.
With information from Mayumi Suzuki
Engineer Bernardo Bosch Hernández, Fátima’s father, has served since 2017 as advisor to the general director of Pemex Exploration and Production (PEP) at Petróleos Mexicanos, a role in which he participates in the definition of policies and monitoring of strategic projects.
Bosch Hernández has almost 28 years of activity at Pemex and has held various strategic positions in operational, social and institutional liaison areas, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Graduated from the Universidad Iberoamericana, he has worked as Management Control Manager at Pemex Exploration and Production, Social Responsibility and Development Manager (where he promoted community and environmental programs) and Public Relations and Legislative Liaison Manager, a key position for dialogue with federal and state authorities.
However, Bosch Hernández was investigated in 2019 by the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) for the alleged illicit enrichment of 6 million 534 thousand 640 pesos.
According to government reports, the investigation was initiated following a complaint from the Ministry of Public Administration (SFP) against the advisor of the former director of Pemex Exploration and Production, Miguel Ángel Lozada Aguilar.
The accusation was based on the fact that between 2011 and 2015 Bosch Hernández presumably recorded income higher than what he received as a public servant of Pemex by more than 6.5 million pesos, apparently without legal justification.
According to the website of the Registry of Federal Public Servants, he did not agree to make public his assets data or his declaration of possible conflict of interest, exceptions to which he is entitled.
The amount of the allegedly unjustified income was established by the SFP after carrying out a wealth verification procedure.
Said SFP complaint was related to an administrative sanction procedure in which Bosch Hernández was disqualified for a period of 10 years from holding federal public positions, although he appealed and said sanction was annulled by the Federal Court of Administrative Justice (TFJA).
The complaint against Bosch Hernández was part of a series of complaints by the SFP, led by the then Secretary of Public Administration, Irma Eréndira Sandoval, who during her administration made accusations against several officials and former public servants of Pemex.
Finally, in 2022 the FGR determined that it found no evidence that Bernardo Bosch Hernández incurred such illicit enrichment.
According to federal sources, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office to Combat Corruption, headed by María de la Luz Mijangos, ruled against the exercise of criminal action in the investigation folder FED/FECC-CDMX/0000090/2019, in favor of the former Pemex official.
After being identified and disqualified by the SFP for those 10 years, the father of Miss Universe 2025 filed an annulment lawsuit against said sanction. He later defended himself before the Prosecutor’s Office and it ruled that the resources charged had an accounting justification and that, therefore, there was no crime to prosecute.
Bosch Hernández no longer has any legal pending with the FGR or the SFP, at least, in terms of irregularities in his assets.
When Fátima’s triumph was announced, there was an unusual congratulation from the official Pemex account, even before President Claudia Sheinbaum did so.
“The oil family congratulates Fátima Bosch Fernández on her achievement as Miss Universe 2025. Daughter of our colleague Bernardo Bosch Hernández.”
Fátima Bosch’s victory has been tainted, in part, by the previous resignation of three members of the contest jury.
The Franco-Lebanese musician Omar Harfouch, author of the symphony for the ceremony, was one of them. On the eve of the final, he announced that the winner would be the Mexican, a victory allegedly arranged by the Raúl Rocha-Bernardo Bosch ties.
Harfouch had resigned from the jury days before and said that the Rocha family “invited” him to vote for the Tabasco woman because it would be “good for their business.” From his social networks he affirms that he has evidence of how both Rocha Cantú and his son Mauricio Rocha “pressured” him.
“I have the recordings of all the conversations during a lunch, including when Mauricio Rocha, as a member of the jury, told me: ‘If Miss Mexico wins, it will be the best for our business,'” he wrote.
Harfouch in an Instagram story, which, he noted, was days earlier at a meeting in Dubai.
The other two judges who resigned before the final were former French footballer Claude Makélélé, who simply cited “unforeseen personal reasons”, and Camilla di Borbone, president of the competition’s selection committee, who also did not clarify the reasons.
Harfouch also announced that in May 2026 he will launch a documentary on HBO Max about the lack of transparency in the Miss Universe 2025 process.