MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s attorney general’s office has asked lawmakers to strip the governor of the violent northern state of Tamaulipas of his immunity, alleging probable cause for money laundering and ties to organized crime, a ruling party leader said on Tuesday.
Ignacio Mier, the majority leader of Mexico’s lower house of Congress, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that lawmakers received the request for Francisco Garcia Cabeza de Vaca’s immunity to be removed, posting a copy of a letter along with his tweet.
Federal sources confirmed the authenticity of the letter to Reuters.
Tamaulipas is widely considered one of the most lawless areas of Mexico, where the line between the authorities and organized crime sometimes blurs. This month, officials arrested a dozen elite Tamaulipas state officers for alleged involvement in a massacre that left 19 people, mostly migrants, dead, with many of the bodies badly charred.
Two of the state’s previous three governors are now under arrest.
Governor Garcia said he had not been notified of the accusations, describing them as politically motivated.
“I have never broken the law,” he said in a tweet.
(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz, Adriana Barrera and Diego Ore in Mexico City; Writing by Laura Gottesdiener; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Edwina Gibbs)
