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 Espinoza” from Matamoros.
MATAMOROS, Tamaulipas — Once again the Tamaulipas government appears to be trying to minimize the public perception of an out of control cartel war along its border cities.
The escalating violence has reached a point that, as Breitbart Texas previously reported, two Congressmen sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry about the lack of security conditions in the Tamaulipas border cities that house U.S. Consulates and asking if they should even remain open as the violence rages on.
Both border cities Matamoros and Reynosa, continue to be ground zero for almost daily shootings and high speed chases which are rarely reported by officials with the Tamaulipas Coordination Group which has been acting as a single source of official information in the state.
Through their short news releases state officials have been documenting arrests and seizures, making it easier for news outlets to do some reporting on the security conditions in Tamaulipas, however Breitbart Texas has uncovered an apparent effort to hide or minimize the death toll in the region.
On May 29, a group of Gulf Cartel gunmen were responsible for a high speed chase that led to a shootout with Mexican authorities in the Buena Vista neighborhood on this city’s south eastern side.
The chase turned shootout set off a security operation where military troops blocked off several streets around the scene of the fighting to keep bystanders safe. The fighting ended up with the vehicle used by the gunmen catching fire and quickly becoming engulfed in flames near Toledo Street.
Authorities set up yellow crime scene tape around the area and tried to kick out curious neighbors who attempted to take pictures and video of the crime scene. After about three hours of crime scene investigation, authorities left the area taking the vehicles, weapons, and other evidence with them. The Tamaulipas government later issued a statement confirming the shootout and the seizure of various weapons. The short statement claimed that the shootout resulted in no injuries or deaths.
Breitbart Texas spoke with various residents who witnessed the shootout in their neighborhood who claimed that there were four dead gunmen inside the vehicle as it burned countering the claims made by the Tamaulipas government.
Following that shootout, Mexican authorities pursued and fought cartel gunmen in various other parts of the city in the late hours of May 29 and into the following morning. Breitbart Texas was able to confirm shootouts in the Trevino Zapata neighborhood, in Colonia Popular, in Robert Guerra neighborhood as well a grenade being thrown during a shootout by the Roberto Guerra overpass. The shootouts led to two additional cartel gunmen dying during the clashes.
The Tamaulipas government did not issue any news releases or information regarding any additional shootouts or the six casualties who were taken to the Matamoros morgue.
As Breitbart Texas previously reported, the Mexican government has been actively fighting to portray an image of safety and control which has resulted in that country’s top officials making outlandish statements such as claiming that Mexico is the safest it has been in the last decade.
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