Union leaders in Tijuana have accused Mexico’s National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL) of systematic fraud at the School of Artistic Initiation 1 (EIA1), claiming the federal institution falsified fiscal documents, forged teacher signatures, and withdrew checks without authorization. The Tijuana art school fraud allegations affect at least two teachers at the facility, which offers publicly funded arts education in the city.
Falsified Documents and Forged Signatures
Union representatives say the irregularities at EIA1 include unauthorized withdrawals of payroll checks and falsified tax receipts. At least two teachers at the school discovered their signatures had been forged on official fiscal documents, according to the complaint.
INBAL, the federal body that oversees arts education and cultural programming across Mexico, has acknowledged the irregularities but characterized them as isolated incidents first reported in April 2025. The institute has not publicly named any suspects or announced disciplinary action.
But union officials reject that framing. They allege the fraudulent practices extend beyond EIA1 to other INBAL art centers in the region. The union also claims teachers have faced coercive enrollment tactics, where staff were pressured to join specific union factions, and that some instructors have experienced delayed salary payments stretching back years.
A Pattern Beyond One School
INBAL operates a network of arts initiation schools and cultural centers across Mexico. These schools provide low-cost or free instruction in music, dance, theater, and visual arts. In Tijuana, the EIA1 is one of the institute’s outposts near the U.S. border, located in a city where both Mexican families and binational households enroll children in arts programs.
The union’s claims point to deeper administrative dysfunction within the federal cultural bureaucracy. Delayed payments and forged documents, if confirmed across multiple centers, would indicate systemic failures in INBAL’s payroll and oversight processes rather than a single rogue employee.
Tijuana’s arts education ecosystem has grown in recent decades, with institutions ranging from the Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT) in the Río Zone to independent schools and university programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. INBAL’s schools occupy a distinct niche, offering federally funded instruction aimed at young students beginning their artistic training.
The union has called on INBAL’s central administration in Mexico City to conduct a full audit of its Baja California operations. So far, the institute has not announced any formal investigation or timeline for resolving the complaints, according to La Jornada Baja California.