MIGUEL ALEMAN, Tamaulipas – The mayor of this border city publicly announced the kidnapping of an elected councilman. By speaking out and asking for help from state authorities, the politician said he is putting a target on the local government.

This week, Servando Lopez Moreno, the mayor of Miguel Aleman, spoke out during a public event announcing that councilman Herbey Barrera Garcia went missing over the weekend. Almost the entire city staff flanked the mayor as he asked for an investigation into the disappearance.

“I am risking my life and that of my officials,” Lopez Moreno said. “But this is the drop that spilled the glass. Kidnapping a member of the honorable council is not something that can be overlooked or tolerated.”

Miguel Aleman is directly south of Roma, Texas, and is considered one of the busiest smuggling corridors for drugs and humans used by the Gulf Cartel. The city is 12 miles northeast from Ciudad Mier, where in July 2018, cartel gunmen kidnapped the local mayor for several hours and then released him unharmed.

The Gulf Cartel and a faction of Los Zetas called “Cartel Del Noreste” have been fighting for control of the lucrative smuggling area over recent months. The fighting has led to numerous gun battles with armored vehicles, grenades, and .50 caliber rifles.

Barrera, the kidnapped councilman, is the husband of Claudia Ochoa Iniguez, a former federal congresswoman from Tamaulipas. Barrera reportedly went missing on Saturday as he drove to his ranch south of the city. Local officials largely remained quiet about the raging violence in the region until this week.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “A.C. Del Angel” from Tamaulipas.