The Condesa Conclave

A five-hour meeting at an upscale restaurant in Mexico City’s Condesa district brought together the sons of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a former presidential aide and prominent business figures during a period of political tension.

Andy López Beltrán and his brother Gonzalo arrived at Magazzino on Pachuca Street with Daniel Asaf, who formerly headed the presidential aide’s office under López Obrador. José Cuervo leader Juan Domingo Beckmann and technology and digital-transformation businessman Mauricio Garduño also attended.

The restaurant describes itself as an Italian-Mexican “gastronomic laboratory” with a six-seat Chef’s Table, where an Australian chef prepares dishes as the evening unfolds. Videos provided to El Universal showed a waiter opening a bottle of Sassicaia, a premium Super Tuscan wine whose retail price ranges from 16,000 to 24,000 pesos depending on the vintage.

The gathering occurred as Mexico faced political turbulence after the August 19 arrest of Fausto Corrales Rodríguez. Corrales, a driver and personal assistant to former Autonomous University of Sinaloa rector Héctor Melesio Cuén, is described as a key witness in Cuén’s killing. He had driven Cuén to the meeting where the murder took place, a gathering also linked in the account to the betrayal of drug trafficker Ismael Zambada by one of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s sons.

Hours after Corrales’ arrest over allegations that he falsely claimed Cuén had been killed at a gas station rather than at the property where the meeting occurred, Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya abruptly returned to office. His return followed 112 days of temporary leave linked to U.S. allegations of suspected ties to the Sinaloa Cartel. It came on August 21, when President Claudia Sheinbaum reported being ill, prompting rumors across the country.