CIUDAD VICTORIA, Tamaulipas — Cartel violence continues to rage in this border state where rival factions of Los Zetas fight for control of lucrative drug distribution and trafficking routes.
In a recently leaked video, Los Zetas cartel members use a machete to dismember and behead a counterpart of a rival faction. The gruesome execution took place in the south central part of the border state of Tamaulipas. As Breitbart Texas has been reporting for more than a year, the cartel known as Los Zetas has undergone a series of bloody schisms.
In the video, a group of Zetas wearing green tactical clothing hold a naked man at gunpoint and briefly interrogate him before the slow execution. During the interrogation, the victim identified himself as a member of the rival faction, Cartel Del Noreste (CDN).
During the questioning, the visually-afraid man claims to be from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas and was sent to Ciudad Mante with a group of three other gunmen.
“What were you doing in Ciudad Mante?”, one of the gunmen asked. The victim replied that he was sent there to cause mayhem.
Soon after, the gunmen take a machete and begin to sever the victim’s legs before moving up to his forearms. The gunmen then turn the body around and hack away at his head. Once the head is removed, they place it on his back and yell out a challenge at all the other rival factions before firing multiple shots at the lifeless body.
As Breitbart Texas reported, the war between factions of Los Zetas began more than a year ago when two groups calling themselves “Zetas Vieja Escuela” (Old School Zetas) and “Grupo Bravo” took on a rival faction called Cartel Del Noreste (CDN). Members of the Gulf Cartel had sided with the Zetas Vieja Escuela faction and helped them take on their rivals in the CDN. For months, the two sides faced-off in a fierce war, resulting in daily bouts of violence that included kidnappings, shootouts, drive-by shootings, and gory executions. Recently, Grupo Bravo broke away from Zetas Vieja Escuela after accusing them of having turned in their leader to authorities. Since then, Grupo Bravo has changed its name to “Zetas” as the factions now face a three-front battle. The video is the second of its kind that this particular faction leaked.
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 “M.A. Navarro” from Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas.