Mexican Border City Flooded with Soldiers — Cartel Boss’ Arrest Raises Violence Concerns

Mexican military forces flooded into the city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and began patrolling the region in an attempt to diffuse any potential violence. The move comes days after the arrest of a top leader with the Gulf Cartel.

Despite the show of force, the military presence is not expected to have any real impact since the Mexican Army has largely avoided fighting with the Gulf Cartel — leaving most of the fighting to state police forces.

Since the weekend, airplanes carrying hundreds of troops arrived at the Matamoros airport. Government officials told Breitbart Texas the troops would be in the city for 15 to 30 days, carrying out patrols in the border region to ensure public safety.

The mobilization of military troops comes just days after, as Breitbart Texas reported, authorities in the neighboring state of Nuevo Leon arrested Juan Alberto “La Kena” Garcia Vilano, a Gulf Cartel leader who controlled the city of Matamoros. The arrest took place in Nuevo Leon where La Kena was visiting a luxury shopping center. La Kena has been singled out as one of the men ultimately responsible for most of the violence taking place in northern Tamaulipas. Due to government connections and widespread corruption in Mexico, he managed to avoid facing consequences.

As Breitbart Texas has reported, military forces and Mexican federal police forces have not played a significant role in fighting drug cartels in Tamaulipas. The brunt of that fight has been shouldered by the state police forces and agents with the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office.

While Matamoros has avoided any large-scale shootouts within the city, as Breitbart Texas reported, in the city of Rio Bravo Gulf, Cartel gunmen have killed innocent bystanders in unprovoked attacks.

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 their original Spanish. This article was written by “J.A. Espinoza” from Tamaulipas.