Gulf Cartel Murders Brother of Mexican Border State Governor’s Top Aide

REYNOSA, Tamaulipas — The ongoing violence in this border city appears to be escalating with one faction of the Gulf Cartel murdering the brother of one of the governor’s top aides.

Tamaulipas authorities responded to an area outside of a local news outlet called Hora Cero along the Ribereña highway. At the scene, they found the body of Heriberto Hiram Saenz Martinez who was shot at least seven times, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the Tamaulipas government revealed. Authorities sealed the crime scene as forensic investigators documented the area.

Hiram Saenz is the local head for Mexico’s Light and Power Commission (CFE) and the brother of Victor Saenz, the chief of staff for Tamaulipas Governor Francisco Cabeza de Vaca.

Unofficial information leaked to Breitbart Texas by law enforcement sources revealed that authorities found a posterboard signed by one of the Gulf Cartel factions–taking responsibility for the murder.

The murder comes one day after Cabeza De Vaca issued one of his strongest messages with respect to cartel violence and claimed his government would not take a step back in fighting organized crime. In his message, Cabeza de Vaca claimed his government was not one that claimed: “No pasa nada,” taking a jab at former governors who constantly denied the issue of cartel violence in Tamaulipas.

The high-profile murder comes as two rival factions of the Gulf Cartel are fighting for more than a year for control of Reynosa and its drug and human trafficking routes. Since early May 2018, more than 500 murders were directly connected to the ongoing violence, Breitbart Texas reported.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican 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 in their original Spanish. This article was written by “A.C. Del Angel” and “Francisco Morales” from Tamaulipas.