The Tequila Museum, a cultural venue and an icon of the Magical Town of Tequila, has been closed since October 2024.
Without official explanation, without announcements, and above all, without shame. While the site is falling off the cultural map, residents and guides confirm that the mayor has already settled in as if it were his personal property.
Scandal in Tequila! The National Tequila Museum, Jalisco (MUNAT) has been closed for months, but the truth is even more alarming: Mayor Diego Rivera is using it as his personal office!
Close sources confirm that the museum’s facilities, formerly dedicated to the culture and history of tequila, now serve as the operations center for the mayor and his team. Meanwhile, citizens demand answers, and the town is left without one of its tourist attractions.
The National Tequila Museum, once one of the main cultural attractions of this Pueblo Mágico (Magical Town), has been closed since October 2024 without a clear official explanation, amid growing allegations that the building is being used as the residence of Morena-led Mayor Diego Rivera Navarro.
The museum has been closed to the public since the new Mayor, nominated by Morena, took office on October 2. There are no signs on the building explaining the closure or any planned reopening dates.
During a tour conducted by MURAL, a tour guide confirmed that access to the museum is closed to the general public. Only the Mayor and some of his administration’s collaborators are allowed inside.
“Since the new Mayor took office, they’ve been remodeling it. It’s not open. The Los Abuelos museum (the Sauza family museum) is also being remodeled. The only one still open is the Cuervo museum,” said the tourism promoter.
A few meters from the museum, on Jesús Rodríguez de Híjar Street, a crafts vendor lamented: “They’ve closed it permanently.”
Similarly, residents of the municipality confirmed that Rivera Navarro himself lives in the building, located just one block from the Municipal Presidency. They indicated that the Morena party member has made the 19th-century estate his residence.
The museum opened its doors on January 23, 2000, and features five permanent exhibition halls, a temporary hall, and an auditorium with a capacity for 180 people. It was established thanks to a tripartite effort and investment, through a trust funded by the municipal government, the Jalisco Secretariats of Tourism and Culture, and eight tequila companies.
However, the museum’s official website was no longer updated last September, following the departure of PAN mayor José Alfonso Magallanes Rubio.
For its part, the Ministry of Culture confirmed that the trust that created the Museum has already been dissolved, although it did not provide the exact date of its dissolution. In January of last year, the museum reached its peak visitor attendance, with a total of 1,900 people.
The local government has avoided transparency regarding the museum’s future. Via Transparency, in request folio 140290125000061, the City Council was asked for the executive project, the corresponding contract, the outcome of a possible bidding process, and the future use of the building.
The official response was to channel everything to the Department of Public Works, headed by Isaac Carbajal Villaseñor, who simply justified the closure with the brief “maintenance.”
Regarding the requested documents, they responded in response 76-2025: “This department does not generate, gather, or distribute such information.” The agency gave the same response to the direct question: “Does the Mayor intend to convert the National Tequila Museum into his residence?”
The museum is managed by a specialized Municipal Directorate; however, the property is owned by the Directorate of Real Estate Assets of the Jalisco Administration Secretariat, confirmed the Ministry of Culture, whose head is Luis Gerardo Ascencio Rubio.
The state agency claimed to be unaware of the renovation and noted that, if it were to be carried out, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) should have authorized the project.
Why has the MUNAT been closed, and why is the truth being hidden? Is Morena’s contempt for Jalisco’s cultural heritage more evident?
Source: El Municipal Queretaro
