The governor of the State of Mexico became the latest target of cartel threats in makeshift banners just weeks after assuming office. The threats come as cartel violence and influence continue to spread to once-peaceful areas of Mexico while politicians push empty claims that the country is safer.
This week, gunmen left a series of banners in the city of Valle de Chalco next to a body where they named Mexico State Governor Delfina Gomez, who took office less than two months ago, as well as some top state prison officials. Authorities found the body and the message on November 2, the last day of the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico.
In the banners, the unnamed criminal organization demanded Gomez, from the MORENA party, stop allowing widespread extortions at the prison and demanded that some prisoners be moved around. The banner also mentions Chalco prison director Paula Gabriela Valdez Herrera and one of her commanders known only as Peralta. The unnamed gunmen warn that if their demands are not met, there will be additional killings.
Authorities have not revealed which criminal organization is responsible for the banner and the murder. However, the State of Mexico has several criminal organizations and major cartels operating with relative impunity within its borders.
Gomez is a close ally of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and, before running for Mexico State governor, was the country’s Education Secretary. Lopez Obrador has been harshly criticized internationally for his refusal to fight drug cartels. Several U.S. politicians have even hinted that Lopez Obrador has been protecting criminal organizations due to his strategy known as Abrazos no Balazos (Hugs Not Bullets), where officials focus on social programs as a way to keep future cartel members away from a life of crime.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the 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 their original Spanish. This article was written by “C.P. Mireles” from Tamaulipas.
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