- For several years, Hernán Bermúdez Requena – arrested in Paraguay on Friday, September 12 – operated in the shadows as the head of the criminal group known as La Barredora. He is accused of operating kidnappings, extortion, drug trafficking, huachicoleo and disappearances in three states: Tabasco, Chiapas and Campeche under the protection of who served as governor of Tabasco, the current senator of the Republic, Adán Augusto López, who has denied such links, but just over the weekend he was removed from the presidency of the Political Coordination Board and is now only one more of the 120 senators.
- Adán Augusto has said that he was unaware of the criminal complicity of his head of public security. Bermúdez fled the country in the middle of this year. First it was said that he took refuge in Panama, then in Brazil and then it was made public that he was based in Spain. No one knows, until now, how he fled Mexico.
- The truth is that on Friday the 12th, after several months of intelligence work and an incessant search by Interpol, he was located and arrested in Paraguay, in the city of Ypacarai, famous for being a refuge for businessmen, politicians and mafiosi. Since last September, Grupo Sol Corporativo has been following investigations against this criminal network with high political ties.
Mexico City.- On the night of Friday 12, in Paraguay, Hernán Bermudez Requena, former Secretary of Public Security of Tabasco, was captured, who is accused of being the supreme leader of the criminal organization known as La Barredora, which operated in the Mexican southeast during the government of Adán Augusto López, former Secretary of the Interior, current senator of the Republic and head of the MORENA party bench.
The former public official had an arrest warrant since February of this year for being accused of organized crime, extortion, express kidnapping, illegal fuel and drug trafficking; La Barredora operated in Tabasco and Chiapas, the criminal group is considered an armed – and operational – wing of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, with a strong presence in Tabasco, one of its strongholds.
The governor of Tabasco, Javier May Rodríguez, based on criminal investigations carried out in Tabasco, accused Bermúdez Requena of being the head of the La Barredora cartel, which operated at the same time that its leader – Bermúdez – Requena – served as Tabasco’s Secretary of Public Security when Adán Augusto López was governor of that entity.
The current senator López Hernández, accused of protecting Hernán Bermúdez, has publicly defended himself. He has said that he never had knowledge of the criminal activities of his Secretary of Public Security; however, the first public accusations against Bermúdez Requena were made known in the hacked documents to the Ministry of National Defense, known as Los Guamaya Leaks.
In these intelligence reports, Bermúdez Requena is related to the CJNG and as the main head of the criminal group La Barredora, to which kidnappings, extortion, crimes, disappearances are attributed, and he is also linked to illegal fuel trafficking, known as “huachicoleo.”
In July of this year, when the arrest warrant was publicly known, Hernán Bermudez Requena fled the country; first he was located in Panama, then in Brazil and, finally, he settled in Paraguay – a refuge for Adolf Hitler’s followers during World War II – where he lived in a luxury residence.
Known as “El Abuelo,” Bermúdez Requena fled Mexico and no authority knew where he left. Subsequently, a red notice was issued internationally and Interpol began to search for him around the world.
On the night of Friday 12, Paraguayan authorities located Bermúdez Requena in the South American country. He lived in a luxurious two-story residence, protected by fences and security cameras. Armed elements of the National Anti-Drug Secretariat of Paraguay (SENAD), in coordination with the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, headed by Omar García Harfuch, and with the support of the National Intelligence Center, located the former Secretary of Public Security of Tabasco. At the time of his capture he was wearing a sweatshirt and beige pants.
The armed group entered the building, while other elements guarded the street to prevent an escape. Bermúdez Requena, according to the videos of his capture, is seen sitting in an armchair and with his face distorted. Rifle in hand, a soldier guarded him at close range.
According to the images that authorities sent to the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, Bermúdez Requena lived in luxury. On the main table are wads of money, including hundred-dollar bills, Paraguayan guaraníes and Mexican pesos.
Bank cards, IDs and yellow envelopes with some annotations are also displayed. There were golden bracelets, presumably gold, pearl necklaces, semi-precious stones and velvet bags; in a wooden cart were cut glass glasses, bottles of Italian sparkling wine, mezcal and a Bose brand speaker.
The residence included a large garden, a pool with lights and was located in an area of high capital gain, in Ypacarai, 40 kilometers from Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, a famous place in that region for being a refuge for foreign businessmen, politicians and mafiosi.
The Sweeper
Three months before fleeing the country, Hernán Bermudez Requena, alleged boss of La Barredora – an arm of the Jalisco Cartel – had obtained a provisional suspension against the arrest warrant that a federal judge had issued against him.
But the former official and alleged boss of La Barredora disappeared. He fled the country despite having an arrest warrant that implicates him in crimes such as criminal association, organized crime, trafficking of stolen fuel and other serious crimes. The criminal group, created during the government of Adán Augusto López, operated in Tabasco, Chiapas and Campeche.
His main support arm, MORENA Senator Adán Augusto López Hernández, was severely questioned precisely because, during his time as governor of Tabasco, Hernán Bermúdez served as Secretary of Public Security and, during that period, he was accused of having relations with organized crime.
He was identified as the head of the La Barredora organization. According to the authorities, it is an armed wing of the Jalisco cartel dedicated to kidnapping, extortion, huachicoleo, drug trafficking, among other crimes that were explosive in Tabasco, to such an extent that criminal violence skyrocketed as never before.
Both day and night, La Barredora settled its accounts generating violence: murders, beheadings, disappearances, product of the war between the cartel of Jalisco, Sinaloa, Northeast, among others, which turned Tabasco into anything but an Eden.
The provisional suspension obtained by Hernán Bermúdez occurred in April of this year. It was then that he filed an amparo before a judge in Baja California. The lawsuit was admitted three days later by Alfonso Javier Flores Padilla, Twelfth District Judge in Baja California, who granted him a provisional suspension, which only protects him from crimes that do not merit unofficial preventive detention.
It should be remembered that Bermúdez Requena was wanted around the world by Interpol for his probable responsibility in the crimes of criminal association, extortion and kidnapping; the latter does merit ex officio imprisonment, which is why he could be arrested and entered into a prison.
However, his freedom will be at the disposal of the judge who granted him the suspension, which must be carried out by the judge who issued the arrest warrant.
Judge Flores Padilla had scheduled the hearing in which he was going to determine whether to grant the amparo to the complainant, but since he could not hold the incidental hearing, in which it must first be defined whether or not to grant the definitive suspension, he decided to postpone the constitutional hearing until August 20. But by then the intelligence agencies located Hernán Bermúdez in Paraguay. It was then that their capture began to be organized with the authorities of that South American country.
Bermúdez: A Criminal History
For several years, Senator Adán Augusto López – although he now denies it – knew the steps of his security chief in organized crime. The members of the Guinda formation had warned about the criminal links of the former police chief.
The governor of that state, Javier May, had publicly accused Bermúdez in November and January 2024 of having headed the criminal group known as La Barredora, and because Hernán Bermúdez’s operations had been going on for several years, he accused his predecessors of turning a blind eye to the criminal history of the former secretary of security currently on the run.
Members of the MORENA party argue, as Felipe Calderón did with his head of public security, Genaro García Luna, that Adán Augusto knew nothing about his police chief’s relations with organized crime.
María Luisa Alcalde, leader of MORENA, said: “It is not he (in reference to Adán Augusto) who should clarify; The one who is being investigated is the one who was Secretary of Security.”
On Sunday, July 20, MORENA held its congress in Mexico City. Adán Augusto López arrived at the Barceló hotel, on Reforma Avenue in Mexico City, after being ostracized after the escape of Hernán Bermúdez. During the event, his party colleagues shouted: “You are not alone, you are not alone…
Two days earlier, the President of the Republic, Claudia Sheinbaum, suggested in her morning conference that it would be important for Adán Augusto to come out to publicly explain his reasons.
And so he did: the senator and parliamentary coordinator of MORENA explained that, although he has not been required by any authority, he was at the disposal of any investigative instance that required it.
The case of Hernán Bermúdez has lent itself to sarcasm. Now it is affirmed that he is the García Luna of the Fourth Transformation. Why? Because García Luna was the link between the Sinaloa cartel and President Felipe Calderón, during an entire six-year term, in which that criminal group was treated splendidly and was able to operate drug trafficking throughout the country without hindrance.
Despite having an arrest warrant since January, Bermúdez Requena was able to flee the country. He left Mexico for Panama, then he was placed in Brazil, then in Europe, particularly in Spain. For several months the location of the former police chief was unknown, until he was located and arrested in Paraguay.
Despite the capture of Bermúdez Requena, the hustle and bustle continues in the country. Now Washington’s spotlight is still very intense on the alleged protector and partner of the boss of La Barredora. His name is Adán Augusto López and he is a senator of the Republic and “brother” – as he calls him – of the moral head of MORENA, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whom not a few have linked to organized crime.
Source: Por-qué
