Two months ago, Tabasco Governor Javier May launched an accusation that at the time went more or less unnoticed but, in light of the acts of violence that hit the southern state in the following weeks, became more serious. May, who took office only in October, stated that his predecessors had promoted La Barredora, one of the criminal groups behind the escalation of terror in Tabasco. Although he did not mention him by name, the accusation fell with all its weight on former Governor Adán Augusto López, whose Secretary of Security, Hernán Bermúdez Requena, was identified by the Army as the leader of La Barredora. May thus broke with the political tradition that the current governor has to cover the back of his predecessor, even more so when dealing with two members of the same party, Morena. The conflict reveals an old and deep rivalry between May and López, the first formed in the PRD, the historic leftist party; the second, emerged from the old PRI. The turbulent waters of politics further aggravate the crisis in the State. La Barredora has waged a war against the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) that has left a trail of shootings, attacks on establishments, burning of vehicles, disappearances of people and murders.
It would be a mistake to say that the fight between May and López is a local dispute. Both characters are two heavyweights on the national scene who have not wanted to air the matter further after that first controversy. López was the governor of Tabasco between 2018 and 2021, the year in which he requested leave to become Secretary of the Interior of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also from Tabasco. That position gave him enormous projection and served as a platform to contest Morena’s candidacy for the presidency of the Republic in 2023. He did not achieve his goal, but he became coordinator of the Morena bench in the Senate. There, Adán Augusto, as he is known, has become the all-round operator to push through the ruling party’s reforms.
May, for his part, was López Obrador’s Secretary of Welfare and was in charge of managing the programs to support the poor. López Obrador then asked him to lead the Mayan Train when he needed a political operator to unblock the construction of his mega-project, given the accumulation of legal resources promoted by environmentalists and the resistance of indigenous communities. Both May and Adán Augusto fulfilled the presidential mission. Both had the trust of López Obrador, their countryman. But on the horizon was the succession in Tabasco and both had a different agenda.
Historical distance
“We Tabasco residents are hostages to a political-party dispute and to the mafias, and it is very serious. There is a dispute within the Tabasco government and within Morena between the Adán Augusto group and Javier May, which obviously affects us,” says Lorena Beaurregard, former candidate of the PRI-PAN alliance for the state governorship in the last 2024 elections. With a long political career in Tabasco, Beaurregard talks about the ups and downs in the relationship between May and López, in a story in which each character seems to have the goal of undermining the other.
To decide its candidate for governor, Morena conducted a survey among voters. May was a clear favorite, but Adán Augusto had bet on Yolanda Osuna, who was his Secretary of Culture and later became mayor of Villahermosa, the state capital. Bearregard says that Adán Augusto’s group “made things very difficult for May” and “played against her” in the Tabasco electoral process, until López Obrador intervened and “established order.” “That’s how there was an apparent reconciliation between both sides,” he says. Another scenario of struggle was the Morena contest for the presidential candidacy, in which May, from the federal government, supported Sheinbaum, to the detriment of Adán Augusto’s aspirations.
Beaurregard says that the fracture is old and dates back to López Obrador’s beginnings as an opponent in the ranks of the PRD, the main left-wing party in Mexico before the leader created Morena. “Adán Augusto represented neo-Perredism, and May belongs to the group of the historicals. May, being very young, began working with López Obrador in the nineties, while Adán Augusto was a member of the PRI,” he explains. In the 2000 state election, when the PRD was on the verge of snatching the governorship from the PRI, May and Adán Augusto were on opposite sides: the former was part of the team of Manuel Ojeda, the PRD candidate; the latter coordinated the campaign of the official candidate, Manuel Andrade, who finally won the state elections, dealing a hard blow to the Tabasco left. Two decades later, May and her “group of historical figures” gave their support to Sheinbaum, in a gesture that was interpreted as a direct endorsement by López Obrador.
Once in power, May began to dismantle the government structure formed by Adán Augusto —and inherited by Carlos Merino, who replaced him as governor to complete the six-year term. “They swept away officials at all levels, no one who was linked to Adán Augusto remained in any secretariat,” says Beaurregard. He adds that the new governor has placed his collaborators in the empty seats, most of whom have been brought in from municipal administrations (May was mayor of Comalcalco twice). “This has caused the paralysis of the Government, total inefficiency, because those who arrive have no idea how a state secretariat works. The instability, the ungovernability, comes from the lack of leadership and knowledge,” he comments.
This is not the only way in which May has distanced himself from Adán Augusto. Also, through the Secretary of Government, José Ramiro López Obrador —brother of the former president—, he has announced that this time there will be no pacts with criminals and that the State will go hunting for members of criminal gangs. This week, Carlos Tomás “N”, El Lic or El Tomasín, one of the leaders of La Barredora, was captured.
The drug trade’s balances
Adán Augusto López appointed Hernán Bermúdez Requena as Secretary of Security in December 2019, one year after assuming the government of Tabasco. One of the Army documents leaked by Guacamaya in 2022 indicated that Bermúdez Requena, alias Commander H, belonged to the structure of La Barredora and had facilitated the criminal group’s control in several municipalities of the State. The document, prepared by military intelligence areas, cited conversations between criminals who claimed that Governor López was an ally of La Barredora. Despite the warnings, Bermúdez Requena remained at the head of the Security Secretariat until January 2024, with the consent, first, of Adán Augusto and, later, of the substitute governor, Merino.
La Barredora was established in Tabasco at least since 2011, hand in hand with Los Zetas. Following the gradual decline of the latter cartel, it formed a fragile alliance with the CJNG, which broke down in 2023, according to the security intelligence platform Lantia. From then on, a dispute began between La Barredora and the CJNG over illicit businesses: drug trafficking, fuel theft, migrant trafficking, arms trafficking and extortion. Other criminal organizations linked to the Sinaloa Cartel or the Cartel del Noreste (formerly Zetas) have joined the drug war, according to Lantia.
The criminal pulverization has brought an upsurge in various crimes. According to official data, in 2024 there were 707 murders, more than 250% more than the previous year. It is the highest figure in at least a decade. The disappearance of people is another serious crime on the rise, with an increase of almost 100% in just two years. According to an INEGI survey, the number of Tabascans who feel unsafe grew 12 points, reaching almost 80%.
After Bermúdez Requena left the Security Secretariat a year ago, former governor Merino appointed General Víctor Hugo Chávez to the post, who has been ratified by May. Despite the retirement of Commander H and the arrival of the military man, the incidence of crime continued to rise throughout 2024, which demonstrates the difficulty of confronting organized crime when it is intertwined with government institutions, says Víctor Manuel Sánchez, professor and researcher at the Autonomous University of Coahuila specializing in security issues.
“May’s statements [against Adán Augusto] suggest that the network that former Secretary Bermúdez built is still present in the Security forces of Tabasco. In other words, the new president is struggling to eradicate the networks of complicity and protection towards La Barredora,” he says. The academic points out that May is also trying to snatch “the strings of power” from Senator López. “It means that, despite no longer being in the government, Adán Augusto still has a foot in the door and is hindering the new president. May’s public statements are an attempt to weaken the influence of her predecessor,” he observes. With the cartels attacking the State, the people of Tasbasque are waiting for May to finish shaking off Adán Augusto, her enemy at home.
Source: elpais
