Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the Gulf cartel if pseudonyms were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Reynosa’s “AC Del Angel.”
REYNOSA, Tamaulipas — The ongoing cartel war has filled the area just south of the Texas border with bodies while the federal government tries to rework their security strategy and to calm the public with empty rhetoric.
As politicians give a number of speeches and make public appearances, the signs of war remain along the border. The signs of war included the find of 130 pieces of human remains in a cartel camp located in a rural area between Reynosa’s Rancho Grande neighborhood and the village of Santa Apolinia. It remains unclear how many individuals the remains belong to.
In Reynosa’s Morgue, authorities have 38 bodies that have not been identified. The bodies remain under the custody of Mexico’s military since they are the result of the recent firefights between cartel members as well as the fights between gunmen and the military.
The raging war between the warring cartel factions in Reynosa and Matamoros which has sunk the border region into a spiral of violence, there is an attempt to bring some solace to families whose loved ones have gone missing. In Reynosa authorities kicked off a search for mass graves in January where they went to 50 different spots where authorities had information about bodies being buried there. The locations included abandoned homes, ranches, and empty lots in and around the city.
After more than 5 years of violence between cartels as well as cartels versus authorities, the official number of missing persons is nearing 5000 all over Tamaulipas making it the highest in the state. In the city of Reynosa, the number is estimated at 800 according to figures from the National Registry of Missing and Lost Individuals (RNPED).
In each shootout between cartel members the number of missing climbs higher. Missing civilians have become collateral victims as cartel members confuse them with their rivals. In many occasions cartel members kidnap them as they travel along highways and in others they kidnap them out of their homes.
In these kidnappings ransom demands are rarely made since the goal of the operation is to kill their rival or their families. The recent spike in violence following the spat between the warring factions led to Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior traveling to the border to rearrange his security strategy. This year, Tamaulipas will be having congressional elections and the true figures of the violence would be a public affairs nightmare to the ruling party in Mexico if they became known. This is why many of those dead will likely end up in paupers graves spending eternity in anonymity.
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