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Octavio Leal Moncada, known by the aliases "El Profe" and "El Tarzán," was arrested this Sunday in Santiago, Nuevo Leon. His arrest led to protests and blockades on the Victoria-Monterrey Highway in Hidalgo.
Octavio Leal Moncada is an 83-year old social and political leader from Tamaulipas, known mainly for founding and leading the Columna Armada Pedro J. Méndez, an organization with a presence in the central region of the state, especially in Hidalgo, Mainero, Villagrán and San Carlos.
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The group emerged as a social and peasant movement that has promoted causes related to security, regional development, and the defense of rural communities. Over time, it also gained political influence in that area of the state.
However, Moncada himself admitted in a 2023 interview that the group was being armed by the Gulf Cartel in their fight against Los Zetas' expansion in the area.
At various times, state and federal authorities have pointed to members of the organization for alleged links to criminal activities. The group and its leaders have rejected these accusations and maintained that it is a social movement.
Residents in Tamaulipas have reported that they have suffered threats, attacks and land theft by the armed group led by Octavio Leal Moncada.
State and federal authorities had identified Octavio Leal Moncada as a leader of a Gulf Cartel cell posing an auto-defense group.
The violence in the state of Tamaulipas, primarily at the hands of Los Zetas, led to the formation of the group in March 2010, based in Hidalgo. It was initially known as Columna Cívica, which, according to its leaders, was founded to combat the criminal gangs that extorted and murdered in the region.
Their operations extended to other municipalities, such as Villagrán, Mainero, San Carlos, Güémez, Padilla, and San Nicolás. After four years, the group began to participate in the political arena, working alongside the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
During the six-year term of former Tamaulipas governor Egidio Torre (2011-2016), the head of Social Communication for the state government, Guillermo Martínez, denied the existence of self-defense groups in the state.
At the end of 2021, the group broke with PAN, accusing Cabeza de Vaca of betraying their agreements, so Leal Moncada announced that they would lay down their arms to focus on civic work, as well as their support for then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The group put its support behind the Morena candidate, Américo Villarreal, through assemblies in which Leal Moncada invited citizens to vote for him.
Américo Villarreal, the Governor of Tamaulipas, today denied that he is under investigation in either Mexico or the United States after a report published on June 27, 2026 by The New York Times claimed otherwise.
At various times, state and federal authorities have pointed to members of the organization for alleged links to criminal activities. The group and its leaders have rejected these accusations and maintained that it is a social movement.
Residents in Tamaulipas have reported that they have suffered threats, attacks and land theft by the armed group led by Octavio Leal Moncada.
State and federal authorities had identified Octavio Leal Moncada as a leader of a Gulf Cartel cell posing an auto-defense group.
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Pedro J. Méndez Columna Armada
Leal Moncada is known as the founder of the “Pedro J. Méndez” Armed Column, a self-defense group that emerged in 2010. Its founding took place during the height of the war between Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel between 2010 and 2012, in which they fought for territory following Los Zetas split from being the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel..
The violence in the state of Tamaulipas, primarily at the hands of Los Zetas, led to the formation of the group in March 2010, based in Hidalgo. It was initially known as Columna Cívica, which, according to its leaders, was founded to combat the criminal gangs that extorted and murdered in the region.
Their operations extended to other municipalities, such as Villagrán, Mainero, San Carlos, Güémez, Padilla, and San Nicolás. After four years, the group began to participate in the political arena, working alongside the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
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Political Influence
However, it was from 2016 onwards that they supported the then candidate of the National Action Party (PAN), Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca, which allowed them to bring people from their group to run for local councils and deputies.During the six-year term of former Tamaulipas governor Egidio Torre (2011-2016), the head of Social Communication for the state government, Guillermo Martínez, denied the existence of self-defense groups in the state.
At the end of 2021, the group broke with PAN, accusing Cabeza de Vaca of betraying their agreements, so Leal Moncada announced that they would lay down their arms to focus on civic work, as well as their support for then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The group put its support behind the Morena candidate, Américo Villarreal, through assemblies in which Leal Moncada invited citizens to vote for him.
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Américo Villarreal, the Governor of Tamaulipas, today denied that he is under investigation in either Mexico or the United States after a report published on June 27, 2026 by The New York Times claimed otherwise.
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On the day after his arrest, protests took place and highways into the area were being blocked. Similar blockades took place following a failed arrest attempt back in 2022.
In 2022, he had been detained for the homicide of two people. He has been accused of ordering the assassination of former Hidalgo Mayor Marco Antonio Leal Garcia in 2010 and Julio Cesar Leal Garcia in 2015. He was also accused of a car bomb targeting then Secretary of Security Rafael Lomelí Martínez in 2012.
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Gulf Cartel Links
In 2021, the then Attorney General's Office of Tamaulipas reported that there was an arrest warrant out for him. In response, Moncada filed several legal Amparos to avoid his arrest. On several occasions, claimed to be a victim of political persecution, while state authorities maintained that there were open investigations against him.In 2022, he had been detained for the homicide of two people. He has been accused of ordering the assassination of former Hidalgo Mayor Marco Antonio Leal Garcia in 2010 and Julio Cesar Leal Garcia in 2015. He was also accused of a car bomb targeting then Secretary of Security Rafael Lomelí Martínez in 2012.
When announcing the July 2022 arrest of Octavio Leal Moncada at a morning press conference of then-President López Obrador, the head of the Secretariat of National Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval González, reported that the Leal Moncada was linked to the Gulf Cartel.
Octavio Leal Moncada gave an interview to Elefante Blanco in 2023, in which he admitted that the weapons they used to defend themselves against Los Zetas were bought from the Gulf Cartel.
Sources Borderland Beat, Proceso, Infobae
In early November 2022, the Tamaulipas Public Security Secretariat transferred Leal Moncada to a hospital in Ciudad Victoria. Weeks later, a magistrate of the Victoria Regional Court revoked the formal arrest order that a state judge had issued on July 12, 2022.
Octavio Leal Moncada gave an interview to Elefante Blanco in 2023, in which he admitted that the weapons they used to defend themselves against Los Zetas were bought from the Gulf Cartel.
Sources Borderland Beat, Proceso, Infobae
You only wrote about the tip of the Iceberg. He was in Tlatelolco in '68 wearing the white glove. He was secret police under the PRI, he is compadre of Carlos Salinas de Gortari. And he still jailed him, during his presidential term. Mexican army cut his mariguana down and they displayed it in town for newspapers.
ReplyDeleteAt one point he was the head of the "Federacion de Cartels Unidos"
He recruited the Zetas G.A.F.E group for Osiel Cardenas.(They trained in the school of the Americas incomunications, and government destabilization) with help from the PRI (as their 71 year reign ended) as armed security for the CDG.
The Zetas later broke into his home on the road to el Chorrito. They stole everything and they gave many things away to the people in the ejidos. Rumor was he got many things back, mostly out of fear. He was always known to ask to murder people if they didn't want to sell he'd "buy it from their widow."
During their fight with the Zetas, it was rumored he had m*ssad agents come in and teach them how to rig IED's . Later he would order a car-bombing in CD Victoria. He has had many of his own people murdered some of them dismembered and the pieces were displayed, then blamed on the Zetas.
While AMLO visited he asked them to lay down their weapons. He refused, and people where Ordered not to vote for MORENA.
At one point armed men that appeared to be from Michuacan came in busses and helped provide security.
They attacked an ejido constantly they targeted several families until they had to be flow out by helicopter, and they are now living as refugees.
He has the bodies of people that cross him dissolved in acid. Like I said, many of them his own people they kidnapped migrants and held them for ransom. He had his own nephew executed. Other nephews he helped frame for having weapons of exclusive use for the military. He then ran his own sister out of town. His son is married into the Benavides family. They own a chain of drugstores.