“Zero tolerance for corruption,” says Secretary of Culture about alleged tax fraud in Inbal schools

The federal Secretary of Culture, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, reaffirmed her commitment to “zero tolerance for corruption” in relation to the cases of alleged fraud in the schools of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (Inbal), reported by artists and which were made known by The Day last Monday.

Interviewed yesterday after the conference for Artisan’s Day at the National Museum of Anthropology, the official said: “as soon as the investigation has information, the results will be announced. We will notify everything.”

In the note published on these pages, it is detailed that the muralist Polo Castellanos received a call in April 2025 from his accountant, who informed him that he had a debt with the Tax Administration Service because Inbal had issued tax receipts in his name during 2024. Castellanos never received that salary: “I was on a payroll at Fine Arts when I have never worked there.”

The muralist reported that he was invited to teach classes at the Artistic Initiation School number 1 and that he gathered documents in order to complete the procedure to enter, but the employment relationship was not formalized. “We discovered that he had been ‘getting paid’ in Fine Arts for a year or so. The payroll included income, ISR and even union dues,” he stated.

The same thing happened to another teacher, who allegedly began to be paid six months before she began working at the same artistic center, in addition to being registered at another school at the institute.

Leopoldo Hernández Castellanos will testify today as a witness in the Attorney General’s Office about another case, not as involved in the complaint he filed.