A group of innocent construction workers have now been missing for weeks in Mexican border city with a history of forced disappearances at the hands of the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas. A local “human rights” group known to defend cartel gunmen and attack military and police remains silent about the case.
The Tamaulipas government has been working to cover up the new cases in Nuevo Laredo to shore up claims of improving security conditions. The mass kidnapping took place on September 11 when gunmen arrived at a house where seven construction workers were staying and took them at gunpoint. The victims were part of a traveling construction crew affiliated with Tamaulipas Autonomous University (UAT).
Relatives of the missing workers have filed police reports and in an ever-growing database of missing persons in the state.
After weeks of no results, relatives have begun staging protests outside the house of Tamaulipas Governor Americo Villarreal.
In a similar but separate case, 11 artisans from the state of Puebla also went missing as they were traveling to Nuevo Laredo for a festival. The group was traveling in a large truck carrying their wares. The artisans went missing on October 1. Unlike the missing construction crew, the disappearance of the artisans drew attention as the government of Puebla contacted Tamaulipas officials for their help.
While authorities have refused to release details of the case, on October 5, officials in Puebla claimed that the missing artisans had been found safe.
While authorities have largely remained tight-lipped about the cases, the border city of Nuevo Laredo is controlled by the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas, who set up roadblocks and also have gunmen patrolling the roads. Those gunmen are believed to be responsible for hundreds of travelers going missing in recent years.
The local human rights group in Nuevo Laredo has not made any public comments about the mass disappearances.
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 “Francisco Morales” and “J.C. Sanchez” from Tamaulipas.