The Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) has formally requested the Chamber of Deputies to oust Tamaulipas governor Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca for links to organized crime, money laundering, and tax fraud. According to a 90-page dossier acquired by the newspaper Milenio, the accusations relate to campaign financing from the Cartel del Golfo (CDG) since 2004. The investigation was reportedly started by the Finance Ministry’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) on November 24, 2020.
The dossier reportedly includes information that “Cabeza de Vaca’s family has managed to amass a great millionaire fortune with 30 hidden properties in Texas, United States.” It adds that in 2019, the governor declared MXN 6.6 million (USD 300,000) income to the Tax Administration Service; however, the UIF’s investigation revealed his income amounted to nearly MXN 43 million (USD 2 million).
Accusations against Cabeza de Vaca for possible links to organized crime have been levied for years. In September 2019, when several CDG banners, referred to as narcomantas, appeared in different areas of Reynosa, threatening the governor and his brother for “breaking promises.” The banners accused the governor and his brother of having received more than MXN 15 million for their campaigns in exchange for allowing the CDG to operate freely.
In December 2020, the Proceso magazine reported that the UIF had filed a complaint against the governor with the FGR for laundering millions of pesos. In August 2020, he was investigated by the Special Deputy Attorney General for Organized Crime Investigation (SEIDO) for alleged operations with illicit resources from criminal groups.
In September 2020, Oscar Balderas reported that a classified document dated June 17, 2015, from the US Consul General’s office in Matamoros, Tobin Bradley warned of a possible meeting between Cabeza de Vaca and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. The document states that according to a file maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cabeza de Vaca met with Genaro García Luna in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, in February 2012, the same time that El Chapo was in the city.
In response to the accusations, Cabeza de Vaca stated, “I want to be very clear, these complaints that are being presented to the Chamber of Deputies [did not occur by chance], they are the product of a political persecution directly from the National Palace (…) if there is any crime that I have committed, it is probably the fact of not having submitted to this federal government.”