Violence against Veracruz cab workers: Hitman targets driver who survived an initial attack in hospital

Violence against cab drivers in Veracruz has intensified in recent days, amid extortion, threats, and murders. The most recent case occurred in Tuxpan, where a driver was shot on Monday. He survived, but the next day a hitman pretended to be a relative and accessed the hospital’s emergency room to finish him off. His father, a fellow driver who had been with him at the public hospital, intervened and was killed. The targeted driver was wounded, but again survived. All this occurred just over 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Álamo Temapache, the municipality where Irma Hernández, also a cab driver and a retired teacher, was kidnapped for refusing to pay the protection fee demanded by the Mafia Veracruzana. Her body was found last week, and her story shed light on the terror experienced by transport workers in the region.

Germán Cruz, a retired police lieutenant, was caring for his son at the Emilio Alcázar Hospital in downtown Tuxpan when he was murdered. The State Attorney General’s Office reported the arrest of Eber Abraham “N” for the homicide. The first attack against the driver, whose name has not yet been released, occurred Monday afternoon in the Luis Donaldo Colosio neighborhood. Over the weekend, another driver was murdered in the same region. He was traveling along the Tuxpan-Cazones highway when armed men on motorcycles opened fire on his vehicle. One passenger was injured, and the driver died in the vehicle.

All eyes turned to Veracruz after the case of 62-year-old Hernández, who was kidnapped on July 18 after refusing to pay the extortion fee required to drive her cab. Six days later, her body was found on a ranch in the municipality of Cerro Azul. During her captivity, she was forced to record a chilling video in which, surrounded by 10 armed men, she warned her colleagues about the consequences of not submitting to the Mafia Veracruzana. So far, four people have been arrested in connection with that case. A month earlier, Jorge Néstor was also kidnapped by a convoy while driving a cab near an elementary school. He remains missing.

The state governor, Rocío Nahle, a member of the ruling Morena party, said that Hernández’s cause of death was a heart attack, and when criticized for that statement, she described those who, according to her, had turned the taxi driver’s story into a scandal “wretched.” Later, President Claudia Sheinbaum described the case as a homicide.

Exortion in Veracruz

Amid all the violence, Veracruz cab drivers are also demanding action. Since Monday, they have marched in various municipalities demanding better wages, security, and justice for their murdered colleagues. “We fear for our safety; we are single mothers,” and “We no longer live, we survive,” some female drivers chanted during the first demonstration in Xalapa.

The Mafia Veracruzana, a splinter group of the Gulf Cartel, operates in municipalities such as Tuxpan, Poza Rica, Tantoyuca, Naranjos, and Pánuco, where they extort drivers and merchants demanding protection money. Since 2024, the group has claimed responsibility for attacks and threats on social media. Its dispute over territorial control includes clashes with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The border between Veracruz and Tamaulipas, a route for drug and migrant trafficking, is one of the hottest zones in Mexico. For the past decade, it was dominated by the bloodthirsty Los Zetas.

On July 6, Sheinbaum and Secretary of Security Omar García Harfuch launched the national strategy against extortion. This plan seeks to reduce crime throughout the country, but with special emphasis on the eight states that account for 66% of reported cases of exortion, including Veracruz. However, cab drivers continue to be targeted by organized crime, and authorities have yet to stop the attacks.

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