Tamaulipas Government Dismisses Cartel Assassination Attempt On Mayor

The Tamaulipas government has dismissed the assassination attempt of a Mexican border city mayor as confusion on the part of cartel members.

Residents along the border reacted to the announcement as yet another attempt by the government to downplay the out of control violence between warring cartel factions that has been plaguing the area since earlier this year.

The security convoy used by Matamoros Mayor Leticia Salazar, which has vehicles marked with government seals, came under fire by cartel hitmen as she traveled along the city’s west side, as Breitbart Texas previously reported.

According to a statement provided to Breitbart Texas by the City of Matamoros, right before the shootout began, an SUV drove straight at the mayor’s convoy and tried to cut them off, but the security detail was able to avoid crashing into them. Moments later, a second vehicle tried to cut them off and then a group of gunmen began firing at them.

Just one day after the attack, Tamaulipas Governor Egidio Torre Cantu held a meeting of his security council where the group announced the capture of four “individuals tied to the aggression.”

During the announcement, government officials claimed that the attack had been an error since the armed civilians thought the security convoy that the mayor had been travelling in was a convoy from a rival group. Government officials then said they dismissed the idea that the attack on the mayor could have been an assassination attempt. Torre Cantu then congratulated the military forces for the prompt arrest of those “individuals” involved.

The casual tone used by Torre and his staff during the televised conference gave the impression that having convoys of gunmen driving around their border cities is not a major problem as long as they don’t mean to hurt public officials.

As Breitbart Texas previously reported, the Tamaulipas government and the federal government have carried out a systematic public relations campaign, attempting minimize the perception of the raging violence in the border cities of that state.

“What? No, Tamaulipas is a safe state, nothing bad happens here,” a citizen journalist who spoke with Breitbart Texas said, mocking Tamaulipas officials. “They basically said that those poor sicarios made a mistake and didn’t mean to hurt her. That is the reality that we live in.”

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