The Hourglass and the Rhombus: Jose Antonio Del Valle Torres and Solidaridad Valiente

The Hourglass and the Rhombus: Jose Antonio Del Valle Torres and Solidaridad Valiente

The logo of Solidaridad Valiente is built from two shapes, and neither is decorative. One is an infinity symbol wrapped around an hourglass, meant to say that time is running out for reforms Mexico can't keep postponing. The other is a rhombus, its four points reaching toward the four cardinal directions, meant to say that the movement belongs to every Mexican, whatever their background. Together they describe the mood of its founder, Jose Antonio Del Valle Torres: urgent, and determined to be inclusive.

Founded in 2021, Solidaridad Valiente, which translates as Brave Solidarity, is a civic and national-unity movement focused on anti-corruption, human rights and social justice. Jose Antonio came to that work through an unusual route. He was a businessman at first, and then the cause grew out of a dispute he says taught him how unrighteously power is distributed.

A Business Dispute That Changed Everything

Before the movement there was GO GABA, a functional ‘brain boosting’ drink Del Valle Torres developed around a unique combination of natural ingredients. GO GABA reached stores in Mexico and the Netherlands and earned recognition from Google, the Mexican Ministry of Economics and the French Chamber of Commerce when The Coca-Cola Company entered the picture. The Mexican subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company and Del Valle Torres signed a legally binding agreement in December 2017.

What happened next became the matter of an ongoing eight year dispute. Del Valle Torres says that Coca-Cola violated confidentiality provisions in the agreement and misappropriated his trade secrets. In July 2018 he filed two criminal complaints one for corporate fraud and a second one for theft of industrial property. Reporting on the case was the Financial Times and the iconic Mexican publication Proceso amongst many others followed. Mexico City’s General Attorney’s Office official opinion refers losses for Del Valle Torres at USD$345 million. The criminal proceedings remain ongoing and have been characterized by irregularities, delays and violations to due process, in favor of Coca-Cola, as reported in a number of televised documentaries from Channel 14 which is part of Mexico’s Public Broadcasting System (SPR).

The Letter

The move from litigant to advocate began with a letter. Del Valle Torres wrote to Mexico's then president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, accusing corruption within the country's authorities, in his case, to illegally favor The Coca-Cola Company. He confirms that the Presidential Office made immediate efforts to correct it, yet the conduct not only continued but further amplified. To him, that outcome revealed a limit that even surpassed in power the very own sitting Government of his country and felt profound concern for Mexico and its citizens.

"There is a constant tension between global capitalism and local democracies," he has said, "as many times the responsible public officials and institutions tasked with upholding democracy are conflicted in standing for the general public good." Solidaridad Valiente was his answer to that tension, a way to give ordinary citizens a voice that he felt the justice system was not providing.

The Movement

Solidaridad Valiente, the organization, works around three aims:

It challenges cases where public authorities appear to yield to foreign corporate interests or political pressure.

It campaigns for stronger protection of public safety, public health and education.

It encourages Mexicans to put aside political division for a shared civic responsibility.

Its guiding idea is that national progress depends on social justice.

Day to day, the group runs awareness campaigns, shares the stories of ordinary Mexicans facing hardship, and publishes civic literature. It also shows the global community what he considers Mexico's real strengths, its people, culture, tourism, creativity and food. "We are working on returning Mexico its glory," he says, "by developing awareness and consciousness amongst Mexicans."

Asked which milestones best reflect its impact, he describes a shift in awareness: a growing sense of national identity, concrete examples of Mexican achievement worth celebrating, and a steadily growing base of followers who engage with the work. It is slow progress by design, one conversation at a time.

The Finance Man Behind the Advocate

Del Valle Torres does not fit the usual picture of an activist. He studied business, accounting and human resources at a leading Mexican university, and in his younger years served as student council president, speaking for over a thousand classmates. He interned at a multinational and a major global bank, then built a corporate career that began in internal control at a large Mexican food and beverage company and rose to a chief financial officer role for a national initiative spanning utilities, electricity and telecommunications aimed at improving the quality of life of the entire country.

That background explains something about how he approaches advocacy: as a problem of systems, incentives and accountability. It also shows in what he built once he left the corporate world. His ventures include computer virtualization services that cut the total cost of owning computers and low-cost water filtering solutions for communities without clean water, alongside GO GABA / The Brain Booster. His philanthropy has helped secure housing for families in high-risk settlements and provided free high-level education courses to communities through a partnership with a major educational system in Mexico.

The Cost

He is plain about the price of the fight. "My leadership has been dramatically and permanently tested over the last eight years as I have committed my life to find justice," he says. "I lost everything that ever mattered to me: country, family, and business." He says he has lived in self-imposed exile to protect his life, and groups including the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke have backed his case.

Nothing in his account suggests he has retreated from it. He says the experience taught him to defend the value of work and fundamental human rights against global corruption, and he presents Solidaridad Valiente as the continuation of that lesson rather than its consequence. "Negligence, corruption and crime, sadly they are always present in our global society," he says. "Everyone loses when the negative overcomes the positive."

Gratitude, Commitment and Perseverance

Asked which qualities carried him through, he names three: gratitude, commitment and perseverance. Gratitude keeps him appreciating what he has. Commitment supplies the discipline to keep pursuing goals that matter. Perseverance keeps him moving through setbacks. He sums up his philosophy in a short line: "Burn as the candle burns." A candle gives light by spending itself, and he believes people should direct their energy and talents toward something larger than themselves.

A line attributed to him carries the same conviction in political form. ‘La libertad solo es posible cuando el Estado es capaz de garantizar la justicia y la seguridad social para todos’. In translation: Freedom is only possible when the State is able to guarantee justice and social security for everyone.

One Body / One Planet

His outlook reaches well beyond Mexico. "My hope is that one day we will come to understand as a human race that we are really one body living on one planet," he says, describing a species that brings its many cultures together in harmony for shared progress. Looking toward 2026, he sees the greatest openings for entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders where a local perspective meets a global vision of growth, naming communications, space, energy and security as fields where local realities and global systems can no longer be separated.

The Question He Opens

He closes with a call for truth to prevail in every situation, across every nation, within the global narrative, and frames it as a personal discipline: without self-examination and a firm commitment to serving others, he says, a life falls short of its purpose. His last words are a reflection on time, which brings the hourglass back into view.

"It's how we spend our time that matters most. After all, life is simply a personal experience within the interaction of time, energy and space."

Then he asks the question he often leaves with the reader: What are we going to do with that?