Mexico border city rocked as weekend of gang violence leaves 19 dead
Fear has invaded the Mexican border city of Reynosa after a weekend of violence in which 19 people were killed, including taxis drivers, workers and a nursing student, and security forces responded with operations that left four suspects dead.
This city across the border from McAllen, Texas, is a key trafficking point, and has long been accustomed to cartel violence. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Monday that evidence indicated that 15 of the victims were innocent bystanders. The other four dead were suspected gunmen from a group that drove into the northern border city of Reynosa and opened fire indiscriminately.
“Everything indicates that it was not a confrontation, but rather a commando that shot people who were not involved in any conflict,” López Obrador said.
Local businessman Misael Chavarría Garza said: “The people were quiet as if nothing had happened, but with a feeling of anger because now crime has happened to innocent people.”
“It’s not fair,” said taxi driver Rene Guevara, adding that among the dead were two of his fellow taxi drivers whom he said were not involved in crime.
The attacks took place in several neighborhoods in eastern Reynosa, according to the Tamaulipas state agency that coordinates security forces, and prompted a deployment of the military, national guard and state police across the city. Images posted on social media showed bodies in the streets.
Authorities have not provided a motive or explanation for the attacks.
The area’s criminal activity has long been dominated by the Gulf cartel which since 2017 has been riven by internal conflicts over territories for drug and human trafficking.
Olga Ruiz, whose 19-year-old brother Fernando was killed by the gunmen, said her sibling was working as a plumber and bricklayer to pay for his studies.
“They killed him in cold blood, he and two of his companions,” said Ruiz, adding that the gunmen arrived where her brother was fixing a drain.
“They heard the gunshots from afar and my stepfather told him: ‘Son, you have to take shelter.’ So he asked permission to enter a house but my brother and his companions were only about to enter when the vehicles arrived,” Ruiz said. “They stopped in front of them and started to shoot.”
On Saturday, authorities detained a person who was transporting two apparently kidnapped women in the trunk of a car.
López Obrador asked federal prosecutors to take over the case and pledged “a thorough investigation”.
Security is one of the great challenges facing the government of President López Obrador. He has assured Mexicans that he is fighting the root causes of the violence and since the beginning of his administration in December 2018, he has advocated “hugs, not bullets” in dealing with criminals. He also says he is fighting corruption to stop the infiltration of organized crime among authorities. But the violence continues.
“Criminal organizations must receive a clear, explicit and forceful signal from the federal government that there will be no room for impunity, nor tolerance for their reprehensible criminal behavior,” said García Cabeza de Vaca of the rival National Action party. “In my government there will be no truce for the violent.”
But García Cabeza de Vaca himself is being investigated by the federal prosecutor’s office for organized crime and money laundering – accusations he says are politically motivated.
Tamaulipas – the state where the Zetas cartel arose and where the Gulf cartel continues to operate – has seen several of its past governors from the Institutional Revolutionary party accused of corruption and links to organized crime. One former governor, Tomas Yarrington, was extradited to the United States from Italy in 2018 on drug trafficking charges.