CIUDAD ACUNA, Coahuila — The mayor of this border city has been named in a cartel message as one of the individuals that allegedly provides protection to a faction of the Los Zetas cartel.
The message has been circulated by members of the Grupo Bravo / Vieja Escuela Z faction who warn about coming violence in the border state of Coahuila–despite the fact that their rivals have government protection.
The expletive-filled text of the message issues a threat to a cartel leader nicknamed “La Rana” or The Frog, who they claim is in Coahuila and will not be protected by the local mayor from an untimely death.
The message does not name the local mayor as Evaristo Lenin Perez, who is the current local leader. The message simply refers to the politician as the President of Acuña since, in Mexico, a local mayor is referred to as the municipal president.
Breitbart Texas has reached out to various individuals within the Coahuila government about Lenin Perez’s alleged links as mentioned in the cartel message. The sources stated that for some time, there have been rumors about underground connections–but the man has never been charged.
Coahuila, like Tamaulipas and Veracruz, are Mexican states that have had some of their top politicians linked with Mexican drug cartels without consequences. As Breitbart Texas has reported in the past, the former governor of Coahuila, Humberto Moreira, has been accused of laundering money from the Los Zetas cartel. Moreira was arrested in Spain where he had been living, in a case that was based largely on information shared by U.S. authorities. Spanish authorities have since released Moreira, however he and some of his former employees have had properties and assets seized by U.S. In Tamaulipas, two of the former governors of that state, as well as a former mayor, are current fugitives of the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly laundering cartel and bribe money using U.S. banks.
The messages from rival factions of Los Zetas come at a time when the violence in various parts of Mexico continues to spiral out of control. As Breitbart Texas has been reporting for more than 11 months, two rival factions of the Los Zetas cartel have been fighting for control of lucrative trafficking and drug distribution routes in the northern Mexican border. One faction, calling themselves Grupo Bravo or Vieja Escuela Z, has been trying to take control from their rivals known as Cartel Del Noreste (CDN). The fighting between the rival cartel groups has resulted in almost daily gun battles, kidnappings, beheadings, dismemberments and other gory methods of execution.
This week, a group of Los Zetas gunmen hijacked a passenger bus and kidnapped 15 passengers that were traveling from the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas into Coahuila. The gunmen were able to take 15 passengers from the bus. Despite the crime having taken place in Tamaulipas, it was the Coahuila government that publicly confirmed the mass kidnapping.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “J.M. Martinez” from Coahuila and “M.A. Navarro” from Ciudad Vitoria.