Mexican authorities have reported that the mayor of Río Bravo, in the state of Tamaulipas, Miguel Ángel Almaraz Maldonado, has been located alive after being kidnapped between Saturday night and Sunday morning in the state of Zacatecas, as detailed by the Secretariat of Security of San Luis Potosí.
"According to the initial data collected, the events related to the alleged unlawful deprivation of liberty of the municipal president of Río Bravo, Tamaulipas, Miguel Ángel Almaraz Maldonado, occurred on the San Tiburcio-Vanegas highway, in territory of the state of Zacatecas," the Secretariat stated in a statement.
In that official note, the agency includes the account of one of the victims, who says that they were left on the highway and that, after that, they were forced to ask for help. In this way, they made their way to the municipality of Cedral, in San Luis Potosí, where they were finally able to request assistance from local authorities.
"After receiving the report of what happened in the neighboring state of Zacatecas, the State Civil Guard activated an operation in the border area, in addition to establishing coordination with the authorities of that entity and the corresponding agencies to contribute to the location of the people," he explained.
Later, the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar García Harfuch, confirmed that Almaraz had been released as a result of the joint deployment of federal institutions, supported by the exchange of information and operational coordination between different states.
"We thank the governors of Zacatecas, David Monreal Ávila; of Coahuila, Manolo Jiménez Salinas; of San Luis Potosí, Ricardo Gallardo Cardona; and of Tamaulipas, Américo Villarreal Anaya, for their support and collaboration in the search and location actions and their permanent collaboration, with the security cabinet led by President Claudia Sheinbaum," García highlighted.
On the political front, Almaraz has expressed his intention to compete in the primaries of the conservative Partido de Acción Nacional (PAN) to become a candidate for Governor of Tamaulipas in the 2028 elections.
His career is marked by a notorious court case: in 2009 he was arrested while leading the PRD (Partido de la Revolución Democrática), a left-wing force, accused of being part of a network dedicated to the theft of hydrocarbons in the Burgos Basin, fuel that was allegedly marketed in refineries in the United States.
In addition to those charges, he was charged with organized crime and money laundering offenses. He remained six years in custody in the El Rincón prison, in the state of Nayarit, until he regained his freedom in January 2015.
After his release from prison, he returned to the electoral arena and ran for Mayor of Río Bravo in 2021, although he was defeated by the Morena-PT coalition candidate (Partido de los Trabajadores), Héctor Joel Villegas González. In the 2024 elections, he did manage to secure the municipal presidency under the PAN sigils.