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’s “JA Espinoza.”
MATAMOROS, Tamaulipas — Bus hijackings and robberies enable Cartel members in this border city to make a quick buck and continue to pray on the public while federal and state authorities are unable to meet the community’s demand for safety.
Based on this, the Matamoros Chamber of Commerce is asking for the reactivation of a municipal police force.
An example of the rampant criminality is the regularly occurring hijacking and robbery of passenger buses just a few blocks from the local bus station called Lucio Blanco. The busses are hijacked by cartel gunmen who climb into the busses to steal at gunpoint cash and anything of value from unsuspecting passengers.
The bus hijackings continue to occur and are actually on the rise leading the public and some businessmen to suspect that bus drivers may be under threat or in collusion with the criminals.
These suspicions come after the bus driver reportedly stops outside of the bus station and allows the gunmen to get into the bus only to continue on his way after the robbery as if nothing had happened.
The practice was revealed after a member of the Matamoros Chamber of Commerce was the victim of one of those robberies and made it public. However, the activity has been going on for some time and common passengers have been too scared to contact neither authorities or the news media.
Roman Garza, a local businessman and member of the chamber of commerce, made the fact that he was the victim of one of those robberies public. Looking for a safer travel, Garza took a bus from Matamoros to Reynosa. However along Diagonal Street the gunmen climbed onto the bus and robbed him and 11 other passengers making off with their valuables.
After the robbery, the gunmen got off the bus and the passengers asked for the driver to head back to the station so they could report the robbery.
The bus driver on the other hand replied that he could not drive back because he had to continue with the scheduled travel.
Seeing the reaction by the driver, Roman Garza said that he called Judith Ruedas Fuentes, one of the highest ranking members with Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (PGR), asking for help. Mexican authorities rushed to the area but were unable to capture the robber who had already fled.
“Based on this case, we consider, as a chamber of commerce, that it is indispensable that we have a municipal police force to prevent these types crime since federal law enforcement officials are not been able to do so,” Garza said.
The businessman said that this type of crime doesn’t take place at nighttime, but also in broad daylight where anyone can become a victim of crime.
The unscheduled stops by the bus drivers are in direct violation of the regulations posted at the bus station. It states that the stops are only to be made at designated spots.
Officials at the Matamoros bus station are refusing to comment on the ongoing robberies and have not released any statistics about the number of cases nor which bus lines have been robbed.