Gerardo Merida Sanchezformer government official Ruben Rocha Moyawas delivered in USA after the Department of Justice charged accusations against him for possible links to organized crime.
This retired soldier, accused of making an agreement with the Sinaloa Cartelrose to key security positions due to his proximity to Audomaro Martínez Zapatawho is considered according to specialists to be the true military leader in Mexico during the former president’s six-year term. Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Martínez Zapata, a trusted man of the former federal president, has training in military intelligence. This is his career and his passage through the security strategy workerist of the previous government.
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General Audomaro Martínez Zapata during a rally led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, then MORENA candidate for the presidency of the republic (04/29/2018). Photo: Saúl López/ Cuartoscuro
In 2021, the journalist and columnist of THE UNIVERSAL, Savior Garcia Sotoreferred to Audomaro Martínez as “the true military chief in Mexico”, due to the influence of this character, with few public appearances, in the intelligence and security strategy of the federal government.
According to the journalist, the retired general served as the real brain behind the militarization of public life in Mexico and served, de facto, as the true head of the national militia; This is due to the increase in the participation of the Army and the Armed Forces in the civil life and government tasks of the country under the previous government.
According to García Soto, this Audomaro-Andrés Manuel proximity It was cemented decades ago, when the man from Tabasco left the ranks of the Institutional Revolutionary to become an opposition leader and presidential candidate with the defunct PRD, and then with Morena.
“With the victory of López Obrador in 2018, General Martínez Zapata became the link and conduit between the president and the country’s military leadership. Already in the presidential campaign, Audomaro was essential so that the troops and middle managers of the Army and the Marine became reservoirs of votes for the Morena candidate“said the columnist.
Salvador García Soto has referred to Audomaro Martínez as the architect of the worker strategy to elevate to constitutional rank the total control of the Army and the Navy in civil security, with a militarization that increased the control and power of military leaders over other security authorities.
“(Audomaro) controls the information and matters that the president should or should not know about in the meetings of the federal security cabinet (…) has the power to elevate or destroy anyone in the government and outside of it and is, in short, the brain of the intelligence and militarization of this government,” the journalist revealed in his column The real military leader in Mexico from March 6, 2021.
General Audomaro Martínez Zapata took office as the new Secretary of Public Security of Tabasco (12/27/2012). Photo: Marco Polo Guzmán/Cuartoscuro
In 2006, the then head of the capital’s government, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, appointed Audomaro Martínez as head of his security staff in the presidential campaign.
Between 2013 and 2015, he served as Secretary of Security of Tabascoin the first opposition government in the entity, under the ownership of the former PRD member Arturo Núñez Jiménezrecommended precisely by López Obrador.
In 2018, with the victory of Andrés Manuel in the Presidency of the Republic, he was named head of the National Intelligence Center (CNI). On his recommendation, the former president broke with the tradition of electing the secretaries of the National Defense and the Semar, to appoint Luis Cresencio Sandoval and Rafael Ojeda Durán.
Omar García Harfuch and Audomaro Martínez Zapata during the swearing-in ceremony of David Córdova Campos as commander of the National Guard (01/17/2023). Photo: Galo Cañas/ Cuartoscuro
On August 12, 2025, the PAN deputy María Elena Pérez-Jaén announced that he would submit a request for General Audomaro Martínez appear before the United Commissions of Citizen Security and National Defense of the Chamber of Deputies.
The legislator explained that this was done in order to explain why she did not take action against the criminal group. “The Sweeper”headed by Hernán Bermúdez Requenaaka ““Grandpa”in the state of Tabasco, during his tenure as director of the CNI.
“This group linked to drug trafficking, corruption and violence operated with impunity thanks to the inaction of the authorities who received repeated alerts, including the National Intelligence Center throughout the period in which Hernan Bermudez “He was in charge of the state Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection,” the PAN member accused.
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In his complaint, he assured that the general could have notified the then governor of Tabasco, Adam Augusto Lopezabout the reports that linked who he would appoint as his Secretary of Security, today considered the leader of this criminal group.
However, the Morenoist deputy Jessica Saidenpresident of the Citizen Security Commission, did not want to put the request to a vote, arguing that it was not presented in writing.
With information from Alejandra Canchola.*
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