MONTERREY, Nuevo Leon — Authorities in this border state have postponed sending security reinforcements to the highways and rural areas adjacent to the war zone known as Tamaulipas. The reduction in security will allegedly take place until authorities are able to train additional police forces.
The cartel violence that has proliferated along the border in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas and threatens to spill over to Nuevo Leon began in recent days with the murder of a regional cartel leader known as Comandante Aguila, Breitbart Texas reported. The violence had been escalating in in recent months on another front as two rival factions of the Los Zetas cartel continue to fight for control of lucrative drug trafficking and distribution routes, Breitbart Texas reported.
The two simultaneous wars that have spread throughout Tamaulipas have caused a sharp rise in violence that the government of the border state has not been able to control.
In recent days, gun battles and executions in Nuevo Laredo, Miguel Aleman, Dias Ordaz and other border zones have left dozens injured or dead. At the same time, the threat of additional violence continues to increase.
The answer to the violence by Nuevo León has been to delay the deployment of police forces to the municipalities of China, General Bravo and Los Herreras. Those cities border with Tamaulipas and have been the areas where residents complain about an increase in gunmen moving throughout.
Recently, the Mexican government sent 300 federal Gendarmerie officers to Nuevo Leon to improve security conditions. The reinforcements were not sent to the border with Tamaulipas or the rural areas, they were sent to the shopping centers around the state capital of Monterrey, far from the areas of conflict.
“The new police officers from Fuerza Rural will be tasked with securing the north and south areas of Nuevo León where we have seen spikes in violence,” said Nuevo León’s Public Safety Secretary General Cuauthemoc Antunez. “We are close to Tamaulipas where they are currently facing difficult situations and we know that there is a need to strengthen out state border.”
In an interview with Breitbart Texas, Antunez states that the police officers in the area of Peña Blanca near Tamaulipas have the task of watching over highways and towns where many of their residents are from Texas. Authorities need to increase their numbers in order to meet their task of bringing security to towns where the smell of death lingers around the neighborhoods.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo León 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 Tony Aranda from Monterrey, Nuevo León.
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