A newly elected councilwoman and appointed mayor of a small city in Michoacan publicly vacated her position and stated her plans to seek asylum in the U.S. Law enforcement sources revealed her departure follows threats from cartels.
Over the weekend, Elvia Del Socorro Ortega, the newly elected councilwoman for the city of Buenavista, Michoacan, published a video where she announced she was stepping down from her position and leaving her political party MORENA. In addition to being a councilwoman-elect, Socorro was set to take over as mayor of Buenavista following the murder of the mayor-elect Eliseo Delgado Sanchez.
In a video released by Ortega, the politician states that she is leaving Mexico and shows a copy of her plane ticket from Michoacan to Tijuana, Baja California.
In a second video, Ortega claims to be in Tijuana where she again states she is leaving political office for political asylum abroad.
Ortega’s public resignation comes days after Mexican authorities arrested Cesar “El Boto” Sepulveda Arellano, a top leader of Los Viagras cartel. Sepulveda is a cartel boss linked to the June 2018 murder of Javier Ureña, the then acting mayor of Buenavista. Law enforcement sources consulted by Breitbart Texas revealed the hit was intended to tilt the election.
Soon after the national elections, Sepulveda and his men were also linked to the July 2018 murder of the newly elected mayor of Buenavista, Eliseo Delgado Sanchez.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Nuevo León and other areas to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Jose Luis Lara, a former leading member who helped start the Self-Defense Movement in Michoacán.