Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas and Coahuila 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 “JA Espinoza” from Matamoros. 

One of Mexico’s largest newspapers has outed a Mexican senator who is also one of the top gubernatorial candidates as having taken money from Mexico’s Gulf Cartel.

The article published by Mexico’s Reforma quotes leaked witness accounts given to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office by a top informant who is now a witness for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The witness signaled Mexican Senator Francisco Garcia Cabeza de Vaca as having taken money from the Gulf Cartel in Reynosa.

Cabeza de Vaca from the National Action Party (PAN) served as Reynosa’s Mayor from 2005 to 2007 and has since become a Mexican senator. He is currently one of the favored candidates for next year’s gubernatorial election in Tamaulipas, the Mexican state bordering Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and Laredo sectors.

In their article, Reforma states how DEA informant Antonio Pena told Mexican investigators about how the Gulf Cartel had given $500,000 to Cabeza de Vaca in 2004 to help his camping for Reynosa mayor at the time.

Pena claimed to have been a broker of sorts between Cabeza de Vaca and then Gulf Cartel plaza leader for Reynosa Hector “El Caris” Sauceda Gamboa. Pena claimed that then governor Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba from the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) had decided to turn Reynosa over to the PAN after the PRI’s candidate in Reynosa fell out Yarrington’s graces.

As previously reported by Breitbart Texas, Yarrington along with his successor Eugenio Hernandez Flores, are currently considered fugitives by the U.S. Department of Justice on money laundering charges. Yarrington is also wanted on various drug conspiracy charges.

The possibility of out of control corruption in Mexico has led to leaders within the private sector asking for political candidates to be vetted by law enforcement.

Osvaldo Castillo, the president of the National Chamber of Commerce in Matamoros, said that political parties need to push candidates with strong moral character and leave out those with an unknown background. The measure should done in order to keep individuals with ties to organized crime out of office.

In addition to having the parties weed out suspicious candidates, the chamber is asking for all candidates to undergo an in-depth investigation by Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and Mexico’s Intelligence Service (CISEN).

There is great concern among business owners in the chamber since most of the breakdown that we are seeing in Tamaulipas and particularly in border cities is due to the lack of clarity of candidates who eventually get elected into office,” Castillo said.