Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
.

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

US Government Provides Mexico with Intelligence Info about Tamaulipas Governor Cabeza de Vaca

 "Redlogarythm" for Borderland Beat

Yesterday, Mexico's Office of the Prosecutor (FGR) released a public statement confirming that the United States Department of Justice had shared information and intelligence data regarding Tamaulipas Governor Francisco Javier Gracia de Vaca's illicit financial operations. The information shared also includes data about some of the Governor's closest collaborators and businesses established in US soil.

The FGR identified the Governor by his first name, Francisco Javier. The statement also included a reference to his two brother Ismael and José Manuel as well as his father-in-law José Ramón Gómez Reséndez. It also mentioned that several commercial businesses, developer and industrial companies had also been identified for being linked to illegal money transfers, banking irregularities and illegal operations.

According to the FGR, this new information will be added to the criminal investigation that is currently underway against the Governor.

Cabeza de Vaca himself has used Twitter to explain that he has asked his lawyers to compile these new evidences in order to review them. A right that he must have "as part of the legal procedure", he said.

Background:

As Borderland Beat has exposed in a recent series of investigative articles, Tamaulipas Governor Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca has a remarkably dark political career.

Once a mid-level bureaucrat in the ranks of the National Action Party (PAN), he used his connections with the family of president Vicente Fox to climb within the apparatus of the party. He became mayor of Reynosa in 2004, apparently thanks to the funds that the Gulf Cartel duly paid in exchange of political patronage and protection, as Borderland Beat showed in last week's article. From there he became a high-ranking member within the PAN leadership, and won the Governorship of Tamaulipas in 2016.

Nevertheless, Cabeza de Vaca was not able to conceal the accumulating rumors, and what started as a series of disconnected vague allegations about his murky past became an avalanche of mud in February 2021, when after a series of brief news about criminal investigations against his figure, the FGR officially filed a criminal complaint against the Governor for the charges of organized crime, tax evasion and operations with funds of illicit origin.

At the same time, the FGR asked for Cabeza de Vaca's revocation of powers (a legal figure in the field of Mexican Constitutional Law known as desafuero).

After a series of legislative skirmishes, the Chamber of Deputies voted for Cabeza de Vaca's desafuero on the last week of April, ordering his removal from the Governor's office with immediate effects. But the Tamaulipas´ Congress rejected this order arguing that the Deputies had no right to oust Cabeza de Vaca from power and filed a controversy against the decision at Mexico's Supreme Court, which now has to decide about its constitutionality. 

Meanwhile, Cabeza de Vaca has left Mexico in search of a safer zone from where to defend his "honor" and "innocence". This safe space has been, of course, United States. We must remember that the Governor is a US citizen too (he has dual Mexican and American nationality).

From an unknown location inside the US, he is currently trying to still pose as the real Governor of Tamaulipas while at the same time has made several moves organizing his legal defense.

On April 23, it was made public that through the intermediation of his wife Cabeza de Vaca had hired a Houston-based legal firm, Gerger Hennesy & Mc Farlane, specialized in handling "complex investigations by state and federal enforcement and regulatory agencies, including the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Securities Exchange Commission (...) and the DEA. Their areas of expertise include environmental issues, (...), price fixing, trade sanctions, money laundering, public contracts/corruption, fraud or immigration (...)" according to their own webpage.

Analysis

It is remarkable that the US has decided to share information not only about Governor Cabeza de Vaca but also about his crew of accomplices that he has led during most of his political career: mainly his two brothers, José Manuel and Ismael, and his father-in-law José Ramón Gómez Reséndez.

These individuals have been constantly linked to corruption practices led and administered by the Governor himself. In the case of his two brothers, they have been accused of receiving massive amounts of money in the form of public contracts for the building of public infrastructure all over the State of Tamaulipas. Contracts awarded by the intermediation of his brother, of course.

In the case of Cabeza de Vaca's father-in-law, he has been accused of being a huachicolero (oil theft) leader at least since the early 2000s. As Borderland Beat reported, his Transportes Gor business group has been accused of importing and exporting illegal gasoline in what could constitute one of Mexico's biggest tax frauds ever.

We do not know the names of the companies which the US has shared info, but it is very probable that they are some of the dozen legal entities constituted during the early 2000s by the Cabeza de Vaca family in the State of Texas and whose main objective was to act as cash pools. They received the money obtained illegally by the family in Mexico (product of kickbacks, corruption and probably drug trafficking money) and re-invested it in local real estate and further business projects. They were able to create a vast economic empire managed by a family that before Cabeza de Vaca's entrance in politics in the late 1990s has not been so wealthy.

If this is the case, Cabeza de Vaca would be proving himself as the last card in the long and thick shuffle of Mexican predatory-Governors. Their identities, stories and corruption practices are always very similar. They conceive Mexican politics as an immense chess table on which to use their own political party for occupying every single square.

When their hegemony is unquestionable, they start sacking the resources of the State and placing the results of the robbery beyond borders (mainly in the US for its closeness, but also in off-shore jurisdictions such as Panama or Andorra) in order to prevent their identification. Eventually, they lose power and are fed to both the media and the public opinion as the few rotten apples while new queens and kings join the match in search for new squares of resources and impunity.

The time will tell if Cabeza de Vaca is able to escape from the hands of Mexico's justice. Currently, his chances of leaving the Mexican chess table intact are almost non-existent.

Note: Borderland Beat is currently working in the third and final episode of "The Private Empire of Tamaulipas Governor Cabeza de Vaca", which will be published in a week. This article will be focused on the analysis and functioning of the corrupted structure that the clan used for sacking the State's resources. It will also include information and real data about the individuals and companies included in US investigation.


29 comments:

  1. "Redlogarythm" Thanks for the work bro

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great work and analysis Red 👍🏻

    ReplyDelete
  3. I cannot stand this guy!!! Always knew he was a crook. He should receive a tougher punishment than chapo IMO!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 4:02 thete are many more politicians and businessmen and internationals even more guilty than el Chapo.
      I hope we have the time to see carlos slim helu's dirty side on yhese pages some day, the slims have gone too far from selling bundles of cloth on sidewalks near the Palacio Nacional back in the day...

      Delete
  4. What's new??? Corruption is engrained in the system, he can be arrested, proven guilty and then there will be a new corrupt governor. Cartel mentality.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 6:40 what do you propose,
      Should cabeza de cagadas de vacas be left alone to steal and enjoy in peace?
      No chingues pendejo!
      Desafuero is losing the right to impunity while in office or out of it, but ti make sure, former givernors tey to get elected to some other elected or selected job in government with help of ppwerful disciples or masters of corruption, like miguel angel osorio chón or giniral cienpedos

      Delete
    2. what Im saying its the whole system that needs fixing not looking at it one person at a time. Obviously has not worked so time to change it up. Fire and arrest all in a massive cleaning or work like they do hire hitmen to take them out.

      Delete
  5. This low down criminal should be arrested at once in US soil.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If the USA has evidence, it makes u wonder why they never file charges against him? 🤔

      Delete
  6. How much jail time will he get?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I’m hoping he gets WACKED. With 300+ casings found in the crime scene.

      Delete
  7. thanks redlogarythm. so now where does Cabeza de Vaca go hide? i expected this to happen but not so quickly... he's a US citizen so he cannot get deported, but the fact that the US collaborated is a big deal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He is hiding somewhere in the USA, me guess is Texas.

      Delete
    2. 8:52 - His address in McAllen, Texas, has been widely reported by the Mexican press since the investigation started. He fled there a day before his "desafuero" ruling.

      He was only living in Mexico because he was Governor. The guy was planning to pack his bags once his term was over anyways. That's what many border mayors and governors do.

      Delete
    3. The current mayor of Reynosa lives in McAllen Tx and only travels into Reynosa in the mornings in a armored vehicle.

      Delete
    4. Citizen or not, he gets deported by international agreements.
      in prison on the US he will have No Spousal visitations, so his wife may be praying he gets locked up on the US, but she is a target too along with her dirty chones family.

      Delete
  8. His rights my ass, what’s with rights of the people he betrayed and murdered.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I believe you would want all rights exercise if you were accused.
      We all know that evidence can be planted.

      Delete
  9. Great read. And also perfect timing with your Part III report! I look forward to seeing what info the US provided. Are these things usually made public this early in the case/investigation?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 8:37 the US has apperently agreed to suspend USAID funding of patriots of "mexican capitalism of the predatory narco-oligarchy" headed by the likes of claudio "x" gonzalez, the mexican indian man of mystery who tries to hide the rest of his illustrious name: Xicotencatl...
      12 million dollars for the campaigns against AMLO is nothing to be laughed at while expecting Mexico's cooperation with shit and "migrant caravans from central america"

      Delete
  10. Why would the U.S. want to get rid of a Mexico Governor

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. US pursues money laundering cases involving Mexican politicians who launder money in the US for a number of reasons, including (wait for it...) asset forfeiture. they can then reinvest that money that was taken away and put it back to their departments to buy shiny guns, new cars, uniforms, salaries... while poor communities in the US continue to suffer from this "drug war" cat and mouse game.

      Delete
    2. I am old, mexican politicians have been laundering $$$$ in U.S. for hundred years. What's new???,? Even before drugs, stealing from the people, retiring in the U.S. for security

      Delete
  11. My god You back
    Chills down my spine
    So happy..LIFE WITHOUT BORDERLAND SO DAMN EMPTY
    TWITTER & INSTA EXPELLED
    I HOPE ALL OF US BE THANKFUL
    WE HAVE THIS PLACE🙏🖤🇨🇦

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Welcome back Turkish poem guy.

      Delete
  12. My guess is all this will be forgotten after the election, just like they did with the investigation against Anaya and Vazquez Mote before him.

    AMLO wants to win the election for his party and will throw all kind of shit to anyone who oposses him.

    Is Cabeza de Vaca innocent? doubt it, but Im sure this is more electoral than anything else.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Looks like political vengeance by the President; what else is New??

    ReplyDelete

Comments are moderated, refer to policy for more information.
Envía fotos, vídeos, notas, enlaces o información
Todo 100% Anónimo;

borderlandbeat@gmail.com