Cirilo Vázquez

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Cirilo Vázquez

Cirilo Vázquez Lagunes (died November 19, 2006), nicknamed "Cacique of the South," ("cacique del sur" in Spanish^[1]) was a Mexican cattle rancher ^[2] and businessman. Vázquez died at the hands of assassins at the age of 51.

Cirilo Vázquez was the most powerful man in Acayucan, Veracruz and many areas surrounding the city of Veracruz. Vázquez, a cacique (a local baron), often loaned money and built roads for the areas he lived in. Vázquez never ran for office and was never elected to any government position.

Vázquez had a common law wife, who served as the mayor of San Juan Evangelista, a town near Acayucan. Vázquez had two daughters, including Fabiola Vázquez Saút, the 28-year old mayor of Acayucan, and Regina Vázquez Saút, a former federal congressperson.

Vázquez also had an older brother, Ponciano Vázquez Lagunes; in June 2006, several kidnappers kidnapped Ponciano, demanded the equivalent of two million U.S. dollars in return for Ponciano's release, and killed Ponciano. Despite the act, Vázquez refused to take extra security measures.

He became well known in the early 1980s because of his ambition, savvy, and violent reputation. As of 2006 some residents of the Veracruz area sing at least one half-dozen corridos (folk ballads) about Vázquez. One of the corridos depicts a shootout with federal police in the 1980s that left Vázquez's four companions dead and Vázquez in prison.

In the 1980s, Vázquez engineered elections of Fabiola and his wife to their respective mayoral positions; he also had Regina elected to Mexico's National Congress. ^[2]

Authorities imprisoned Vázquez on three different occasions for weapons possession, drug trafficking, and murder. Authorities never convicted Vázquez.

On November 19, 2006 ^[3], several assassins ambushed Vázquez as he returned from a semi-pro baseball game in which his team had defeated a regional rival with a 10-1 win. The men shot Vázquez at least twelve times, including three times in the head. Three municipal police officers, who served as Vázquez's bodyguards, and the father of Vázquez's common law wife also died.