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| Jorge Humberto Guzmán Enríquez |
The former candidate for mayor of Madera, Chihuahua, Jorge Humberto Guzman Enriquez, was murdered on Saturday morning in Vista Hermosa neighborhood in Madera.
According to information from the local Prosecutor's Office, investigators are considering two theories for his murder: one is for his political activism and the other for personal vengeance.
Eyewitnesses said that several armed men traveling in a red Tahoe vehicle cut off Guzman Enriquez's car and shot him multiple times. The former mayoral candidate was killed on the scene. His body was found inside his vehicle and taken to the local morgue for an autopsy.
It is worth mentioning that Guzman Enriquez's was thinking of running again for mayor of Madera for the 2024 local elections as the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate.
He ran for the same party in 2021 but lost the elections to Marcelino Prieto Carreón of the National Action Party (PAN). Prieto Carreon's predecessor, Jaime Torres Amaya, was criticized by local media outlets for purchasing a MXN$9 million home (approximately US$534,000) in Chihuahua city a year after his mayoral service ended.
Alejandro Domínguez, state leader of the PRI, after expressing his condolences and solidarity to the family and friends, denied that there had been any previous threats against Guzman Enriquez. Dominguez said that Guzmán Enriquez never told the party or authorities that his life was in danger or that he had received any death threats.
In addition, he explained that he was not aware of Guzman Enriquez's intent to run again for mayor of Madera because the incumbent party is part of a coalition and the local government had not yet determined how the candidacies would be arranged.
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| Municipality of Madera within Chihuahua state. This area is a vital corridor for drug trafficking and potentially lucrative area for illegal logging (image credit: HEARST) |
Background: Cartel war in Madera
Madera has been a heavily contested area between the Sinaloa Cartel and La Línea for many years.
The municipalities of Madera, Ignacio Zaragoza, and Buenaventura was once controlled by Sinaloa Cartel leader Francisco Arvizu Marquez (alias El Jaguar), but La Linea boss Carlos Arturo Quintana Quintana (alias El Ochenta) took control of the area sometime prior to 2017.
El Jaguar sought out the support of major Sinaloa Cartel figures such Jose Crispin Salazar Zamorano (alias El Tío or Tio Pin), the leader of Los Salazar, and others from the group Los Paredes. They agreed to support El Jaguar's efforts to retake Madera from La Linea.
By 2018, El Ochenta's network of protection had been diminished enough that he was arrested. El Jaguar reportedly retook Madera in 2020, but he was arrested the following year.
Sources: Diario de Juárez; La Vision; Borderland Beat archives
Running for any political opening in Madera is probably a death sentence or at least a huge target on your back if you don’t know powerful people. If you don’t have cartel connections who can protect you, it’s probably not worth. But then again Madera is contested so it’s hard to get the support of all cartel leaders with interest there. How can this be even fixed? It will take many generations.
ReplyDeletePretty much all of Mexico too but I get you. In these smaller towns being a mayor is a big deal because they hold a lot of power. BB just touched on this on that Veracruz mayor who got arrested.
DeleteSe parece a mi tío. QEPD.
ReplyDeleteSome one didn't give the big guy he's 10% 👀...
ReplyDeleteIs that any relationship to the chapo Guzman family
ReplyDelete"Autopsy" what a joke, ALMOST as funny as those crime scene cartridge empties markers scattered all around. Those poor fkrs must watch a lot of American crime shows.
ReplyDeleteLove the Mexican cartel news buzz words. The "autopsia de ley" jaja or the "nego la suspensión definitiva" for amparo hearings. Who knows what that means for the latter. They love to overcomplicate things. Those amparo articles if you read them in Spanish make no sense even to me as a native speaker... BB does a good job at them but sometimes even in English they are a struggle.
DeleteThose amparo cases are extremely confusing. I'm a native Spanish speaker and still struggle reading through some of them... some of the phrases have no direct translation either so sometimes we have to use "US equivalents".
DeleteIn the U.S., all legal shit is written in Latin, to make sure NOBODY understands a word of it..
Delete🦎
La —————-
ReplyDelete