Eight Puerto Vallarta council members demand a meeting on municipal finances and public services after a split in Mayor Luis Munguía’s bloc.
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, November 14, 2026 – Eight of Puerto Vallarta’s 16 City Council members have formally demanded that Mayor Luis Ernesto Munguía González call a council meeting within two business days to address the municipality’s financial problems, the administration’s operations and the delivery of public services.
The written request was submitted Friday, November 13, and carries the signatures of council members who represent exactly half of the Ayuntamiento. It follows Wednesday’s departure of five members from the mayor’s Partido Verde bloc, a political split that has now turned into a formal demand for answers about how City Hall is managing its money.
The request was received by both the Secretaría General del Ayuntamiento and the Dirección del Despacho de Presidencia on Friday afternoon.
The council members want an ordinary council session called within two business days of the document’s receipt. They argue that urgent municipal business has gone undiscussed because the Ayuntamiento did not hold its required meeting in October.
Víctor Manuel Bernal Vargas, who now coordinates the group that left Partido Verde, told Tribuna de la Bahía that the last full council meeting took place September 13.
That would mean Puerto Vallarta has gone nearly two months without a regular meeting of the elected officials responsible for approving municipal spending and overseeing the administration.
Under Jalisco’s municipal government law, an Ayuntamiento must meet at least once a month.
The five-member split has become an eight-member demand
The latest confrontation began Wednesday, November 11, when four council members and the municipality’s síndico announced they were leaving the Partido Verde council bloc.
As PVDN reported when the five members broke with Munguía, their departure left the mayor without the council support he previously enjoyed.
The five who signed Friday’s new request are Víctor Manuel Bernal Vargas, Christian Omar Bravo Carbajal, Marcia Raquel Bañuelos Macías, María Magdalena Urbina Martínez and municipal síndico José Francisco Sánchez Peña.
They were joined by three Movimiento Ciudadano council members: Micaela Vázquez Díaz, Felipe Aréchiga Gómez and Iroselma Dalila Castañeda Santana.
That gives the demand eight signatures.
The political difference from Wednesday is worth watching. The five former Partido Verde members initially announced their own break with the mayor’s council group. Two days later, all three Movimiento Ciudadano representatives joined them in requesting a formal meeting.
Munguía’s remaining Partido Verde bloc consists of the mayor and four council members.
The other council representatives include two members of Morena and Melissa Madero Plascencia, who was already serving independently. None of those three signed Friday’s document.
Bernal told Tribuna de la Bahía that the two Morena council members had been approached about joining the request but wanted more time to review it.
The eight signatories do not necessarily agree on every municipal policy. Their signatures show that they agree the council needs to meet and discuss the city’s finances and services.
What the law allows the council members to do
The request cites Articles 50 and 53 of Jalisco’s Ley del Gobierno y la Administración Pública Municipal.
Those provisions allow council members and the síndico to request ordinary or extraordinary Ayuntamiento sessions.
Article 50 also provides a way for council members to call a meeting themselves if the mayor refuses without a justified reason. However, exercising that authority requires an absolute majority of the Ayuntamiento.
Here, the numbers matter.
Although the letter describes its signatories as an absolute majority, eight of 16 council members represent exactly half the Ayuntamiento. An absolute majority requires at least nine.
The eight members can formally request a session, as they have done. But if the mayor refuses to call it, they would need at least one additional council member to reach the threshold specified in state law for issuing the call themselves.
The state’s rules also require the agenda and supporting documents for an ordinary session to be delivered at least 24 hours before the meeting. Ordinary sessions are generally public and must be broadcast live, except where a legally justified restriction applies.
For now, the request is a demand for the council to meet, not a formal finding of financial wrongdoing or an order requiring the mayor to resign.
The money questions behind the confrontation
There is a larger financial dispute running through the disagreement.
Earlier this week, Munguía acknowledged that his administration was dealing with a difficult financial situation and said he intended to seek authorization for an advance on revenue-sharing payments expected in 2027.
The amount under discussion is approximately MXN 100 million.
The mayor said the money would help cover municipal payroll and year-end aguinaldos, the Christmas bonuses required under Mexican labor law.
He attributed the financial difficulties to lower-than-expected municipal revenue, reduced tourism activity following the violent events of February 22, and outstanding payments owed to the municipality, including taxes and licensing fees.
Munguía has described the proposal as an advance of revenue rather than new borrowing. The funds have not been approved through the council process he described.
For Bernal, the concern isn’t limited to whether the city can obtain another MXN 100 million.
Bernal questioned why the administration was discussing a revenue advance publicly without first presenting the financial situation to the full Ayuntamiento.
He has also cited approximately MXN 403 million in short-term obligations to suppliers. That is Bernal’s reported figure, rather than a total independently established through an audit.
The issue has been building for months.
In July, PVDN reported that another proposal to advance up to MXN 100 million in government revenue-sharing payments had stalled before reaching a public council vote. At the time, the administration was considering using those funds for worker payments, fuel and equipment associated with garbage collection.
By October, the problems had become more visible. PVDN reported concerns about delayed municipal wages, unpaid suppliers and shortages affecting city operations.
The financial questions have continued into November, just weeks before the city must close its 2026 accounts and prepare to operate under a new budget.
Public services are part of the dispute
The eight council members are not asking only for a financial presentation.
Their written request specifically identifies public services and the general condition of the municipal administration as subjects requiring urgent discussion.
Those concerns come after another difficult stretch for garbage collection.
On November 11, PVDN reported that Puerto Vallarta was again promising to restore regular trash collection, with only 26 of the municipality’s 35 garbage trucks available for service at the time.
Earlier complaints involved missed collections, piles of household garbage and disputes over the resources needed to operate the service.
There are also concerns about infrastructure spending.
On November 6, PVDN reported approximately MXN 23 million in outstanding contractor payments, with at least five street projects affected by the payment problems.
The council’s latest request doesn’t specify which contracts, accounts or municipal departments must be examined first. It asks for the opportunity to discuss the financial condition of the government and problems affecting the services it is responsible for providing.
That leaves the details of any financial review to be established through the council’s agenda and the information presented during the session.
Munguía has called for dialogue
The mayor has already addressed Wednesday’s political split, although that response came before Friday’s formal meeting demand.
In a public statement following the departure of the five Partido Verde members, Munguía said he respected their decision and recognized their right to express different positions within the Ayuntamiento.
He also identified public services, municipal finances and the administration’s operations as matters requiring attention.
The mayor said political disagreements should not interrupt services to Puerto Vallarta residents and indicated that communication with the different council groups would remain open.
The eight-member request now seeks a council meeting where those same subjects can be discussed formally.
As of Saturday morning, no public response to the new request or meeting date had been reported.
The next deadline falls after the holiday
The timing gives the mayor an immediate procedural decision to make.
Friday’s request calls for a session to be convened within two business days. However, Monday, November 16, is Mexico’s official holiday marking the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution.
With the holiday excluded, the two-business-day period would run through Wednesday, November 18.
That is the requested deadline for calling the meeting, not necessarily the date on which the meeting must take place. The required notice and distribution of meeting documents would still have to be observed.
A council session would give members an opportunity to question the administration about outstanding bills, revenue projections, municipal payroll and the proposal to advance money expected in 2027.
It could also determine whether there is enough council support to authorize that financial proposal.
For now, eight elected municipal officials have put their request in writing, and City Hall has received it. The next development will be whether Munguía issues the meeting call by Wednesday and places the municipality’s financial condition and public services before the full Ayuntamiento.
