MCALLEN, Texas — Mexican authorities have confirmed that drug cartel gunmen kidnapped the dean of a state funded Mexican border university more than a month ago and his fate remains unknown.
Jose Guadalupe Rivera Martinez was the dean in charge of the Reynosa campus for the Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas (UAT). Rivera was kidnapped by unknown individuals on December 26 and has yet to be found, UAT officials told Breitbart Texas.
Rivera’s family filed a formal complaint with the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office, who confirmed the case to Breitbart Texas but would not provide additional information because the matter remained open.
As previously reported by Breitbart Texas, both the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas have been targeting universities along the border, forcing their campuses to close their doors amid threats. At the start of the year the Universidad Valle De Mexico (UVM) in Nuevo Laredo closed its doors and in September the UVM campus in the border city of Reynosa also closed its doors after the Gulf Cartel threatened their dean and students.
A Tamaulipas law enforcement official who asked to not be named citing security reasons said Rivera had challenged members of organized crime by not allowing them to use the campus in order to get access to a nearby gas pipeline. The theft of gasoline has become a big moneymaker for drug cartels in Mexico who have made a practice of tapping into the pipelines to fill tractor trailers and then selling the gas in plastic containers on street corners.
Follow Ildefonso Ortiz on Twitter and on Facebook.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.