The arrest of Diego Rivera Navarro, former mayor of Tequila, Jalisco, for alleged ties to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and a systematic extortion network, is neither an isolated incident nor a “victory” to celebrate. It is the confirmation of a deep and rampant evil that has infected the foundations of Mexican politics.
Tequila is not just any municipality. It is one of the most important and wealth-generating ones in Jalisco and the entire country. Its name is a global brand, its tequila industry moves millions of dollars in exports, attracts high-level tourism, and represents a national identity emblem. Precisely for that reason, it is alarming that its municipal president, a militant of the narcoparty in power, was arrested along with three of his main collaborators—the directors of Public Security, Cadastre and Property Tax, and Public Works—accused of leading a network of illegal collections, arbitrary fines, and extortion of tequila producers, brewers, and merchants.
The testimonies that have come to light speak of high charges for rights and services that suffocated private initiative and the general citizenry. It was not a matter of an inept administration, but of a deliberate extraction of resources under the shelter of municipal power and, according to investigations, in symbiosis with Mexico’s most powerful and dangerous criminal group. The mayor did not govern for the citizens; he was a pawn of the narcogovernment.
For years, it was insisted from the highest federal government platforms that the candidates of the “Fourth Transformation” were shielded, that the new politics was immune to the old temptations of organized crime. It was presented as a generational and moral change. The arrest of Rivera Navarro—and that of other Morenista mayors in recent months—crumbles that narrative. It shows the flagrant symbiosis between political power and narco at the most sensitive and immediate level of contact with society: the municipalities.
Because it is in the city halls where the operating permit for a business is decided, where licenses are granted, where property taxes are handled, public security, and spending on works. It is there where organized crime finds the most accessible door to co-opt institutions, collect floor fees with legal and official invoices, and guarantee impunity. A municipal narcogovernment is not a detail, an isolated fact, or a failure of one; it is the gear that allows the narco to go from being a parallel actor to becoming a co-governor.
In seven years of left-wing government (2018-2026), documented journalistic accounts record at least 25 mayors and former mayors arrested for direct ties to organized crime, extortion, kidnapping, or homicides. The majority belonging to Morena or its allies. The real figure of infiltrated municipalities could probably be much higher, because not all cases reach arrest or public scandal. The evil is not on the margins; it is entrenched in the center of the system.
This fact should not be minimized or sold as proof that “action is being taken”. Nor is it to applaud the action of a supersecretary. On the contrary: it reveals that the supposed transformation not only did not shield the candidates, but in many cases opened the doors to those who saw public power as a criminal business opportunity.
The bishops of Mexico had warned about it in the Global Pastoral Project 2031-2033, regarding the fate of any State and government that has corruption as the norm of law: “No State can survive where crimes are not punished, where the institutions of justice have been corrupted, and there are no means to ensure the application of the law to those who have committed a crime. Even if there is an exemplary legal framework, if the laws are not enforced, they are useless. This reality has led to the crisis of government institutions, rulers, political parties, and union leaders, to lose credibility among citizens and to break a fragile social fabric.” (PGP 2031-2033, No 60).
Tequila bitter from the poison of corruption. This is another case… how many more are left to discover?