Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas and Coahuila 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 various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas 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 “M.A. Navarro.”
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Tamaulipas — Violence has increased in various parts of this border state following the pulling out of more than 680 Mexican army soldiers who had been charged with carrying out police duties.
Attacks from Los Zetas in the southern part of the state have spiked since the military pulled out of the state at the end of 2015. The move was set to be a common rotation; however, for unknown reasons the new troops have yet to arrive. The void left by the military has placed a target on the state police force known as Fuerza Tamaulipas. Ambushes, attacks and other acts of violence point to an expected increase in violence in the coming weeks.
Breitbart Texas consulted with Tamaulipas government officials who confirmed that when the military forces pulled out a series of agreements that some officers had with organized crime came to an end. The attacks on state police officers point to an effort by organized crime groups to flex their muscles and pressure authorities to continue the type of agreements that they had with organized crime members.
One of the attacks by Los Zetas took place last week in the town of La Soledad, located in the municipality of Padilla, not far from the state capital of Ciudad Victoria. During that attack, Los Zetas shot at a squad of police officers but were not able to injure anyone. Authorities set off a manhunt to track down the gunmen but they were not successful.
That same day, in the town of Estacion Manuel, located in the municipality of Gonzalez, a group of Fuerza Tamaulipas police officers riding in a police truck were ambushed by a group of Zetas riding in a white GMC Yukon. Various gunmen began firing machine guns at the officers.
The gunmen managed to injure four police officers and a woman who was an innocent bystander before fleeing. Authorities responding to the attack tried to chase them and set up a security perimeter to catch them. The gunmen managed to get away.
So far, Tamaulipas police forces have been ambushed three times by Los Zetas in the southern parts of Tamaulipas. As previously reported by Breitbart Texas, earlier this month, a convoy of gunmen with the Gulf Cartel ambushed a squad of intelligence agents with Mexico’s federal police.