Agustín Vales Castillo (1857 – 1938) was a Mexican businessman, banker, industrialist, landowner, philanthropist, and liberal politician who served as prefect of Mérida (jefe político) during the governorship of Olegario Molina.

Furthermore, the glowing description of Mérida by British writers Frederick Frost and Channing Arnold supports the city's reputation at that time as a clean, modern, and prosperous place.

During the Mexican Revolution, there was a shift in political power in Yucatán, and many elite families joined Maderism, led in the southeast by José María Pino Suárez, who was related to Vales by marriage.

According to Valdés Acosta, "those of this lineage proved their descent from Cornelius the Centurion," the first gentile to convert to Christianity, and “their ancestral home (solar) in the Burgos Mountains is one of the most distinguished” in Spain.

It is mentioned that Olegario Molina, governor of Yucatán, selected him for the position due to his reputation as a "man of energy, integrity, talent, and knowledge of the environment in which he would operate.

[6] During his tenure as prefect, Agustín Vales promoted several public works such as city paving and drainage systems, the construction of a Lunatic asylum and the expansion of the Penitentiary.

Díaz was positively impressed by the progress achieved in Mérida during Vales' administration, describing the city as impeccable and modern, a suitable place for the great capital generated in Yucatán.

With Vales in charge of the political leadership, Mérida flourished, its streets scientifically, paved with macadam, illuminated at night with electric lamps, and traversed during the day by modern trams, all before Mexico City.

[9] In those years, Frederick Frost and Channing Arnold, two British writers who visited, described the capital of the state:"Merida was magically perfect, completely different from any other Spanish-American city one could imagine.

The people passing by in carriages, the police officers on the corner with their elegant Holland uniforms, and the merchants at the doors of their stores... all had an impeccable appearance that defied description.

"[1]While he is recognized for his contribution to the development of Mérida, authoritarian actions are also attributed to his government: he attempted to prevent the growth of syndicalism[10] and is mentioned to have promoted hygienist policies such as the prohibition of alcoholic beverages and the closure of taverns in the city.

Additionally, along with the Cámara Ancona brothers, he owned Hacienda Chenkú, one of the most prominent estates in Yucatán and an important fiber producer in the context of the booming henequen industry.

[12] Associated with his brother-in-law Raymundo Cámara and Eusebio Escalante, Agustín Vales founded the Cuyo Agricultural Company, although he only held a minority interest.This company employed over fifteen hundred workers and controlled an extensive property of 2,627 square kilometers in the northwest area of Yucatán (roughly the size of Rhode Island) which was "crossed by 168 km of its own telephone lines, an animal-drawn Decauville line with 60 platforms and 500 mules, a broad-gauge railway with 12 platforms and a locomotive, a 167-m-wide dock and even a 500-ton steamship.

In early 1913, Molina openly criticized the harmful monopoly of International Harvester and supported the cooperative efforts of growers, through the Henequen Market Regulatory Commission, to break the control of American trusts.

In 1934, along with Alfonso Ponce Cámara and other prominent entrepreneurs, he founded Banco de Yucatán, S.A. (as a successor to the former bank of the same ) and served as Vice chairman of the board of directors on several occasions.

By the late 1940s, Embotelladora Peninsular, S.A. had started producing a new soft drink under its own brand, Cristal, with flavors of black cider, barley, orange, and mineral water.

The couple had the following offspring: He was the owner of Casa Vales, a neoclassical-style mansion on Paseo de Montejo that has been described as "one of the architectural treasures that bear witness to the economic splendor that the Yucatecan capital achieved in the early 20th century.