Overview
- Miguel Angel Almaraz, mayor of Rio Bravo, was seized while traveling with family and friends and was released by his captors hours later in the city of Zacatecas on Sunday.
- Relatives reached a town in San Luis Potosí to alert authorities after armed men intercepted the vehicle and allowed the mayor’s companions to go free.
- Federal and state officials have launched an active investigation but so far have not identified who carried out the abduction or explained why it happened.
- The area where the mayor was taken is known for violence tied to major drug gangs, including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel, and recent attacks on municipal targets have raised local safety concerns.
- Almaraz is the mayor of a border city of about 110,000 people located roughly 11 km from Texas, and he was previously jailed in 2009 on money-laundering and fuel-theft charges before being acquitted in 2015, facts that officials say are background rather than confirmed motives for the incident.