According to Sol Yucatan, Ivonne Ortega amassed a fortune of 3.5 billion pesos during her time as governor, acquiring properties in Dzemul and Mérida, including a massive 349-hectare estate, while leaving the state with a debt of nearly 2 billion pesos and unfinished projects.
The legacy of a governor who left behind debt, empty hospitals, and incomplete projects, but who left the Government Palace with a vast landholding shielded from any scrutiny.
Federal Deputy Ivonne Ortega Pacheco, of the Citizens’ Movement party, is not only remembered for leaving Yucatán with debt and unfinished projects during her governorship (2007–2012). Today, records from the Public Registry of Property confirm that her political footprint also became a territorial footprint: at least 10 properties in her name in Dzemul and Mérida, including urban lots, houses, and a 349-hectare mega-property that, in the current market, could be worth over 3.5 billion pesos.
During her time as governor of Yucatán, Ivonne Ortega Pachec forged a real estate empire with properties in Dzemul and Mérida.
The beginning of her real estate career was as modest as her political career. In 2000, Ivonne Ortega acquired a property with a thatched-roof house on Calle 20 in Dzemul for 23,000 pesos. This was at the time when she was serving as a local deputy and mayor of her municipality, with a rising profile thanks to the PRI party.
But her assets would soon expand, and not exactly at market prices. As part of family donations, in 2004, she received 21,769 square meters of rural land in Dzemul from her mother. This was the seed of what, during her governorship, would grow into an enormous extension of land under her name.
One of Ivonne’s properties is located within the San Remo private residential area at 18-E Street #257-B, Altabrisa Subdivision, Mérida – an urban property (tax lien canceled in 2025).
With the governorship of Yucatán in her hands (2007–2012), Ortega experienced her golden age. It was then that high-value properties appeared in the Public Registry, such as Plot 12381 in Dzemul, a 349-hectare plot. In 2021, this massive parcel was divided into three parts as a way to regularize it and give it legal status.
While her land holdings grew, the state’s finances suffered. Her administration was criticized for leaving a public debt of nearly 2 billion pesos, in addition to a string of unfinished projects, such as the Tekax hospital, promised, inaugurated in speeches, but without doctors or patients. This phantom hospital became a symbol of the contrast between official rhetoric and reality.
The paradox: while the hospital remained empty, Ivonne Ortega accumulated hectares of land at ridiculously low prices, declared in deeds for amounts that did not exceed a few thousand pesos.
After leaving the governorship, Ortega diversified her presence in Mérida. In 2016, a subdivision of urban lots on Calle 22 in Dzemul was registered, and in 2023, she bought an urban lot in the same area for 250,000 pesos. These seemingly minor transactions complete the puzzle of a strategy: to fragment properties and consolidate territorial control.
She also owns properties in Mérida, one in Altabrisa (Calle 18-E #257-B) and another in the México Norte neighborhood. Both were seized by the Mexican Tax Administration Service (SAT) until the liens were legally lifted in 2025. The same thing happened in Dzemul: three of his properties were subject to tax liens, which were also lifted in recent years.
This pattern of liens and legal cancellations is reminiscent of another historical criticism leveled against Ortega: the lack of transparency in her handling of resources and her ability to evade legal scrutiny.
In official documents, her properties are listed with ridiculously low values: around 273,000 pesos in total. But the market reality is quite different:
The 349-hectare mega-property in Dzemul could fetch up to 3.49 billion pesos on the market, according to conservative estimates for land near the coast and in areas of tourist expansion.
The urban lots in Mérida and Dzemul would raise the total to more than 3.5 billion pesos.
In other words, the difference between what was declared and the actual value is abysmal, a pattern that coincides with her administration’s style: official figures manipulated to mask much higher costs.
Alongside her real estate enrichment, Ortega, during her six-year term, championed spectacular projects such as the concerts at Chichén Itzá, the Gran Museo del Mundo Maya (Great Museum of the Mayan World), and the CRIT (Children’s Rehabilitation Center). These media-driven initiatives were criticized for their excessive cost and for failing to address the urgent needs of the people of Yucatán.
Today, her real estate portfolio reflects the same logic: eye-catching transactions, but at symbolic prices. Public debt for the state, but private profit for the then-governor.
Source: Sol Yucatan
