THE INTERNECINE POLITICAL/CARTEL WAR RAGES IN MATA

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

The fortunes of some political figures in Matamoros allied with tumultuous administration of Norma Leticia Salazar Vázquez (above in the annual Charro Days International parade) have taken a turn for the worse.

In late July, her father, Ramiro Salazar, was abducted and released only after the family paid a reported $2.5 million in ransom, mainly, it has been reported, in the form of real estate in the United States that had been taken from some individuals associated with people engaged in organized crime.

Now, just last week, Tamaulipas online media reported that the treasurer in her administration, Luis Miguel Fuentes,  was found inside his late-model Cadillac Escalade abandoned in the rural area around San Fernando, some 25 miles south of Matamoros. The vehicle had been reported as stolen according to state police.(See graphic on top.)

Fuentes, who Salazar proposed for Mexican federal representative, was the partner of the mayor's boyfriend and social development director, Luis Alfredo Biasi in the enterprise Alpha, a vehicle storage of cars towed by the city. It was at the business that the auto belonging to three U.S. citizens who were abducted by the mayor's paramilitary force Grupo Hercules was found. 

Witnesses reported to state police that the two brothers and one sister were taken by force by the group and later found murdered in a rural road between Matamoros and Rio Bravo. Despite calls for a federal investigation by the FBI by U.S. Rep Filemon Vela of Brownsville, the murders were never solved and no  one on either side of the border has been charged with the crimes.

While a municipal treasurer, Fuentes, who had a known penchant for buying expensive sports cars, was reported to have bought a Jaguar  F Type and a BMW I-8 with an aggregate value of $5 million in Mexican s (about $250,00 in US dollars).        

Salazar used Fuentes' Jaguar when she participated in the 2015 Charro Days parade. Raquel Alvarado, the mother of the slain U.S. citizens Alex, 22, Jose Angel 21, and Erica Alvarado Rivera, 26, protested Salazar's participation in the parade while refusing to answer for her Grupo Hercules' involvement in the disappearance and murder of her children.

The violence in Matamoros has become a lethal brew of cartel war and political intrigue between militants for the PAN and Morena parties in the city who are either allied or foes of Governor Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca, a PAN adherent.