Posted on 06/23/2007 1:04:02 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Mayor blames Tamaulipas governor, says incident intended to destabilize Reynosa
REYNOSA — The attorney general of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas denied claims that an arrest warrant was issued for Reynosa’s mayor after reports that more than a dozen armed men tried to arrest the mayor and at least three city workers outside City Hall on Friday.
“I want to make clear that there are no arrest warrants against the mayor of Reynosa,” said Tamaulipas Attorney General Aníbal Pérez Vargas in a statement released late Friday. He did confirm that one city worker was arrested at his home in connection with a two-year-old case and that more arrests of former or current city workers were possible in that case.
Mayor Francisco Javier Cabeza de Vaca told The Monitor in a phone interview Friday that 20 armed men who refused to identify themselves allegedly surrounded City Hall in an attempt to arrest the city treasurer and two other city workers.
“It is a failed attempt by the governor to destabilize Tamaulipas’ most important city, Reynosa,” said the mayor, who was at home at the time of the alleged incident. “We had to call the Mexican army for help.”
Cabeza de Vaca and City Manager Horacio Ortiz Renan said the state police were responsible for the purported standoff. But Pérez Vargas and state police Commander Noe Hinojosa Villarreal said only one city worker was arrested, and that the arrest was in con-nection with evictions of vendors at El Mercado Guadalupano in Reynosa two years ago.
Villarreal also denied that any of his men were at City Hall on Friday.
The city worker state police did arrest was Hector Leopoldo Guerra Valdez, a supervisor in the city security agency. He was arrested outside of his house on charges of abuse of authority, illegal eviction, making false statements and other charges.
Cabeza de Vaca, a member of President Felipe Calderon’s National Action Party (PAN), said investigations like the one into Guerra Valdez have been a hallmark of campaigns by Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernandez Flores, a member of the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), to discredit the Reynosa mayor.
Ortiz Renan, a federal congresswoman and a city commissioner held a press conference after the alleged confrontation at City Hall.
Ortiz Renan said the purported incident occurred about 5 p.m. Friday when men armed with automatic weapons arrived at the municipal building in as many as seven unmarked cars.
“We found out from an unofficial source that the police were coming to arrest city functionaries,” he said “We sent out a group of lawyers to ask why the police had come, but we ended up calling the army and city police because they refused to identify them-selves.”
Federal Rep. Omehira Lopez Reyna of Reynosa added that she had sent a letter to the state attorney general’s office asking for an order protecting city workers and political appointees from being arrested in connection with any case. ____
Andres R. Martinez covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434. ____
La Frontera Editor in Chief Adan Guerrero contributed to this report.
Old Mexico ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Mayor Cow Head must have pocketed the wrong drug money.
Mayor Cow Head?
I think “Meathead” would be a better translation!
Cabeza de Vaca = Head of the Cow, or perhaps Cow Head
Cabeza de Vaca = Head of the Cow, or perhaps Cow Head
Cabeza de Vaca was a famous Spanish explorer in the 16th century as I recall. Unfortunate name, but I’m sure it is still a much respected one in Mexico.
Why any American or Canadian would want to live in this third world cesspool eludes me...
NO CERVEZA FOR OIL !!!
México lindo y querido si muero lejos de tí
Que digan que estoy dormido
Y que me traigan aquí.
Que digan que estoy dormido
Y que me traigan aquí
The explorer Alvar Nunez y Cabeza de Vaca was shipwrecked on the coast of Texas and took years to find his way back to Mexico, living with many Indian tribes on his odyssey.
Cabeza de Vaca was his preferred surname. It descended from an ancestor who had helped secure victory for Christian forces at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212) by marking an unguarded pass in the Sierra Moreno with the skull of a cow.
In gratitude, King Sancho of Navarra bestowed the surname “Cow’s Head” on Cabeza de Vaca’s matrilineal progenitors. The Álvar Núñez portion of Cabeza de Vaca’s name also came from a prominent ancestor of his mother, who was an accomplished naval officer.
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