Businessman and former official Simón Levy contradicted President Claudia Sheinbaum by denying he was detained in Portugal and claiming he is in the United States. Sheinbaum presented an official notification from Portuguese authorities indicating his detention on October 28, 2025. Levy showed his passport in an interview and called the accusations false.
On October 30, 2025, during her morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum displayed a notification received from Portuguese authorities regarding the detention of Simón Levy Dabbah in Lisbon. According to the document, Levy was detained on October 28 upon attempting to enter Portugal, under an international detention order, and presented before the Lisbon Tribunal that same day. Sheinbaum explained that, due to his European nationality, Levy was released but is not allowed to leave the country. "He seems to have nationality from one of the European countries and, therefore, they release him, but they do not allow him to leave the country. (...) He was lacking the truth—let's say it that way—that he was not in Portugal but in Washington," the president stated.
Hours later, in an interview with Azucena Uresti, Levy categorically denied the detention. "False!" he responded when asked if he was detained in Portugal and released. He claimed to live between Washington and San Diego, California, and mentioned being in San Diego two days prior and in New York four days earlier. He showed his passport live, arguing: "If there were cautionary measures or the things they are saying, I wouldn't have it." He described the versions as "madness" and denounced a fake Interpol document linking him to a process on October 29, 2024.
Levy faces two arrest warrants in Mexico: one for crimes against the environment and responsibilities of directors in charge of works, stemming from irregularities in a building's construction; and another for threats and damage to others' property, related to a video showing him hitting a door. The former Tourism undersecretary under Andrés Manuel López Obrador and former head of ProCDMX insisted that, as he is not a public official, he does not need to account publicly. However, Uresti revealed that her team located him at the restaurant of the Myriad hotel in Lisbon during the interview, adding to the controversy over his whereabouts.