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 “JA Espinza” from Matamoros.
MATAMOROS, Tamaulipas – After some days of apparent peace in the Mexican border city of Matamoros, just south of Brownsville, Texas, a series of violent gun battles stopped daily activities around most parts of the city.
Despite the fierce firefights, authorities have limited the access to official information. The border region of Tamaulipas continues being the scene of a bloody cartel war as two factions of the Gulf Cartel fight for control turning the area into a warzone.
The series of bloody shootouts, blockades, and pursuits led to the rollover of Mexican army truck which left some soldiers injured and may have killed some. Officials have not confirmed the the reports of casualties.
The shootouts were primarily contained in Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez Street just outside of a convenience store called “El Rosario.” This is where citizen journalists reported seeing the upside down army truck with several wounded and likely dead soldiers. This happened during a pursuit with cartel gunmen. So far, government officials have not provided any information about the case and local news outlets have remained silent.
In a separate incident, but just around the same time, citizen journalists reported that federal and state police forces were pursuing a group of gunmen inside a white pickup just behind some popular basketball and soccer courts in the Independence neighborhood.
Additional shootouts took place in the rural community of Empalme in the town of Valle Hermoso. Gunmen and military forces were engaged in shootouts and pursuits. Also in the town of Anahuac, which is along Sendero National Highway, where a rolling shootout ended in a car crash along the highway connecting the small town with the border city of Rio Bravo.