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 “A.C. Del Angel” from Reynosa and “J.A. Espinoza” from Matamoros.
REYNOSA, Tamaulipas — The most recent bouts of violence have resulted in four separate gun battles that killed four gunmen and one police officer. The raging civil war continues despite the constant assurances by Mexican government officials about the improving security conditions along the Tamaulipas border.
The first of the four recent gun battles began on Friday in the border city of Matamoros where Mexican soldiers killed two cartel gunmen, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the Tamaulipas government revealed.
The shootout began when a convoy of Mexican soldiers spotted a pickup with two gunmen near the “November 20th” rural community. The gunmen tried to flee from authorities and started a high speed chase into Matamoros. During that chase two other vehicle ran into the convoy in an effort to help the gunmen in the white pickup. The during a rolling shootout, the Mexican soldiers pursued the various vehicles used by the gunmen. One of the vehicles crashed into a house and two of the gunmen died inside. Authorities identified one of the gunmen as 39-year-old Florencio Gonzalez Garcia from Reynosa. They did not yet identify the other gunman.
In another shootout on Monday, police officers with Fuerza Tamaulipas seized two SUV’s, one rifle and other tactical equipment following two separate shootouts with cartel gunmen. The first shootout from Monday took place near Ciudad Mier. A police convoy was fired upon by a group of cartel gunmen who had been hiding in the bushes. Ciudad Mier is just southwest of Roma Texas. After that shootout, authorities found some tactical equipment in the brush but the gunmen managed to flee.
The second shootout took place on Monday in the Las Fuentes neighborhood in Reynosa. Tamaulipas police officers spotted two SUV’s with several gunmen riding inside. Upon spotting the police officers, the cartel gunmen started shooting, starting off a brief gun battle. The cartel gunmen managed to escape capture but left behind the two SUV’s and one assault rifle with multiple magazines inside.
On Saturday, police officers with Fuerza Tamaulipas got into a firefight with three gunmen, killing two of them. According to information released by state officials to Breitbart Texas, the police officers were responding to citizen complaints about a group of men firing weapons in one of the rural communities near Valle Hermoso. Authorities responded to the area and began to search for the gunmen. Soon after, they spotted a red Dodge pickup with an extended cab. Inside the truck, three gunmen began to fire at the police officers and attempted to flee. The gunmen crashed into an irrigation canal where one of the gunmen managed two flee. Authorities killed the other two gunmen during a fierce firefight.
The ongoing violence resulted in the death of Tamaulipas police officer Emanuel Santiago Morales who, according to the Tamaulipas governor’s office, died on Saturday “doing his duty.” It remains unclear if the police officer was killed during Saturday’s gun battle or in another violent incident.
Despite the various violent incidents around the state, on Monday, Tamaulipas Governor Egidio Torre Cantu congratulated the commanders of various police and military forces for a “casualty free Easter Week.”