The government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari ordered the assassination of Subcomandante Marcos, leader of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), and entrusted the mission to Sergio Villarreal Barragán—alias “El Grande”—who was then an agent of the Federal Judicial Police (PJF). Journalist and researcher Anabel Hernández revealed this detail in an interview with Infobae México, explaining that the operation was planned in 1994, days after that year’s Zapatista uprising, and was aborted when the government negotiated a truce with the group.
This event is documented in Hernández’s book *Narcocracia* and was confirmed by the author herself to Infobae México. The journalist emphasized that this is “a fact no one had ever told us before,” according to her exact words in the interview.
According to the journalist, the revelation exposes a major political contradiction. While the Salinas de Gortari administration appeared to be engaging in dialogue with the Zapatistas, it had simultaneously dispatched a group of judicial police agents to Chiapas with instructions to eliminate Subcomandante Marcos.
Villarreal Barragán—who years later would rise to the leadership of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel—was at the time an agent fresh out of PJF training. Authorities identified his aptitude for counter-insurgency and organizing attacks, and assigned him to a special unit for the mission.
