Mexico’s federal senate majority is trying to remove two state governors due to their alleged inability to control cartel violence. The move appears to only focus on states led by a rival political party and is supported by talking points previously made by cartel-connected groups.
This week, the senate majority of the Morena (National Renovation Movement) Party moved forward in its effort to present motions to remove the governors of Tamaulipas (Francisco Cabeza de Vaca) and Guanajuato (Diego Sinhue Rodriguez Vallejo) from the National Action Party (PAN). Senators from the PAN condemned the actions as political vendettas.
Morena is focusing on leaders from a party that will likely serve as the core challenge to the left-leaning faction in future elections. Morena-dominated states like Veracruz are spared from senate scrutiny– where cartel gunmen recently torched a bar filled with customers.
In their claims against the Tamaulipas government, Morena senators point to what they call an “extrajudicial execution” by state police where they allegedly murdered eight innocent men and staged it to look like a cartel gun battle. The claims are echoed from the cartel-connected leader of the Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Commission, who was documented as an advocate for the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of Los Zetas. The Tamaulipas officers linked to that case are suspended and detained pending an investigation.
The Mexican senators do not mention the recent lack of action by the Federal Police and military in relation to the cartels like the Gulf and Los Zetas. In 2019, Tamaulipas state police were largely the only ones clashing with cartels in key border cities such as Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa–leading the Tamaulipas governor to publicly shame AMLO for federal inaction.
The Morena senators did not acknowledge data from Mexico’s National Public Safety System, which has shown a decrease in “high impact” crime like murders and kidnappings in the border state. Similarly, other federal statistics point to Tamaulipas seeing an economic boom. Guanajuato is suffering from a shortage of federal funding and cooperation as the region deals with an escalation in cartel violence. At least 37 police officers were killed there in 2019 alone.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.