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 Ciudad Victoria’s “MA Navarro.”
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Tamaulipas—A series of execution and raging violence that have been taking place in this state capital point to a change within Los Zetas drug cartel and perhaps even more violence.
The executions of individuals linked to organized crime took place under orders of a man known as Commander Boss who is the current plaza boss for Los Zetas in Ciudad Victoria. This move follows an apparent restructuring within the criminal organization and appears to have the blessing of the Zeta leadership in Nuevo Laredo. The drug cartel known as Los Zetas has formed a council of sorts in order to carry out decisions within the criminal structure.
The eradication of members within the most dangerous criminal organization has sparked alarm in this city as to increased violence while authorities with the Public Safety Secretariat (SSP) in Tamaulipas announce a new era in security by naming a new SSP secretary.
General Jesus Martinez Martinez, the new SSP secretary for Tamaulipas has replaced General Arturo Gutierrez Garcia who after a year and a half finished out his term as head of this governmental body.
Gutierrez Garcia arrived in Tamaulipas as part of a federal task force aimed at taking control of the public safety situation in the area. During his term in office, Gutierrez Garcia oversaw the downfall of 14 bosses from the two main cartels in the area, Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.
While the SSP undergoes various changes, Los Zetas have been carrying out executions within their organizations. The drug cartel had been keeping a low profile following the capture of various of their leaders in along one of their areas of operations that ranges from Ciudad Mante to Ciudad Victoria.
The effort to keep a low profile ended when the executions started. One of the executions took place this week when unknown individuals murdered Miguel Angel Carriere Gonzalez as he was coming out of a local mechanic shop. Just hours later, 17-year-old Erick Teran Olvera died after unknown individuals shot him while answering the door at his house.
Another shooting took place Thursday outside of the Francisco Hernandez Garcia Law School in this city. A group of five unknown gunmen shot 18-year-old Eduardo Medina Olvera leaving the critically injured man in a pool of blood.
The heightened profiles of Los Zetas continued this week when the group hung various banners in this city accusing the SSP undersecretary of forming an alliance with the Gulf Cartel through a $1 million bribe, Cartel Chronicles reported.
The border city of Nuevo Laredo has also seen a spike in cartel violence. Over the weekend the city saw 8 Los Zetas gunmen and one soldier die in a series of fierce firefights. These violent incidents were also reported by Cartel Chronicles.
The series of executions and violence that have spiked along this region appear to show that Mexico’s most sadistic criminal group is undergoing internal changes in an effort to remain current and to keep their plazas under control. Their ongoing war with the Gulf Cartel has already spread to five years plunging the state into an insecurity crisis where the loss of lives remains beyond counting and neither side has been a clear winner.
Just as neither Los Zetas nor the Gulf Cartel appear to be winning their war, the security strategies implemented by the federal and state government have not changed the perception Mexico is winning in public safety matters.