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 a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Matamoros’ “JA Espinoza.”
MATAMOROS, Tamaulipas — A February bomb threat inside a junior high school in the Mexican border city of Matamoros prompted the deployment of local authorities and federal forces to evacuate the students. This added to the long list of violent incidents recorded so far.
In response to the call, authorities stormed into the building evacuating the more than 900 students inside as they searched for the device. The threat created panic amongst the student population and their parents. Many parents rushed to the school to pick up their children. The threat adds to the undercurrent of fear in the city that is now in a war-like state. In mere days, Matamoros residents have seen a grenade attack at a local TV station that injured two employees, a grenade scare at city hall and the kidnapping and beating of a local newspaper director.
First responders also evacuated other nearby schools and buildings until they were able to confirm to confirm that it was only a threat.
“Unexpectedly the feds arrived to the principal’s office informing us about the threat, therefore we began the evacuation of the student body,” said Genoveva Hi Gonzalez the school principal.
Under the current state of violence in this border city, the principal said that everyone is vulnerable and that no threat can be taken lightly. Gonzalez asked the federal authorities to help train her staff on how to respond to similar circumstances in case another threat turns out to be real since they currently don’t have a contingency plan.
“We need to be prepared to respond to these situations based on the new security challenges that we are going through at the moment,” the principal said.
While the call was only a threat, it helped create instability and overall fear in the community adding to the existing fear created by the ongoing violence that has impacted the border community in recent weeks.