The mayors of Cuautla and Atlatlahucan, Jesús Corona Damián and Agustín Toledano Amaro, were videotaped in a meeting they held with Júpiter Araujo Bernard, “El Barbas,” considered the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel in the eastern part of Morelos.
The mayors, both elected last June under the PRI-PAN-PRD-RSP coalition, share a table with “El Barbas,” who carries a long gun that rests between his legs. Corona Damián is sitting on his right hand and the mayor of Atlatlahucan is sitting on his left, with his back to the camera.
To Corona Damián’s right is Samuel Márquez, “El Mayor,” current secretary of the Cuautla City Council, and next to him is Jorge Bazán Reyes, leader of merchants.
“El Mayor” is the same man who served as Corona Damián’s bodyguard on the night of March 2024, when the van they were traveling in was the target of a shooting attack.
The then mayor reported that both were unharmed because the van they were traveling in was armored. The attack occurred when he was returning from the Eastern Regional Prosecutor’s Office, where he filed a complaint for death threats in whose messages he was asked to “get off” the electoral contest. The outcome of the investigation was never known.
Corona Damián had his first term as mayor of Cuautla in the 2018-2021 three-year period and sought re-election for the following period but lost to the Morena member Rodrigo Arredondo, who also sought re-election in these elections but was defeated by Jesús Corona, whose campaign slogan was “I’ll take care of security.”
At this moment, Cuautla is the municipality with the highest number of violent homicides, extortions, femicides and disappearances of women.
Source: eluniversal
