Mexico’s Army sent 200 soldiers to the border city of Matamoros this week, an area with a history of being controlled by the Gulf Cartel.
The arrival of troops comes soon after the criminal organization was able to bring all activity in that city to a halt last weekend by hijacking tractor-trailers and buses to block main avenues. Gunmen also torched vehicles to support their blockades. The efforts were carried out in response to a recent military raid targeting local Gulf Cartel operatives.
The arrival of the new troops in Matamoros also follows a deployment in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, a bastion of the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas. It remains unclear what effect the troops will have since federal authorities have generally worked to avoid clashes with gunmen for several months. The goal has been to avoid large-scale shootouts as part of the policy dictated by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Federal leaders have tried to stem violence by reminding the public that cartel criminals are still fellow citizens. Regardless, record-setting violence is occurring in previously calm cities.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the 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 “J.A. Espinoza” from Tamaulipas.
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