Two innocent bystanders sustained gunshot injuries and two other men died in multiple locations during a day of cartel shootouts in the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas. Unconfirmed information points to the almost capture of a local cartel figure as being the trigger for the spike in violence.
The violence began shortly after 9 a.m. on the city’s western side along a dirt road called Becerro. In that area, convoys of gunmen clashed with Tamaulipas state police forces. As in prior cases, neither Mexico’s National Guard nor the military responded to help the state police forces who often are outnumbered and outgunned as the Gulf Cartel has been using armored SUVs to mobilize their gunmen during their shootouts.
Unconfirmed information points to state cops coming close to capturing Carlos Humberto “M36” Acuna de Los Santos, a local cartel lieutenant with the Metros faction of the Gulf Cartel.
To avoid capture, Acuna deployed his gunmen and had other members drop hundreds of road spikes in various parts of the city as a way to cause traffic jams and slow down police forces.
During the multiple shootouts throughout the city, a 17-year-old student at the TecMilenio high school sustained a gunshot injury and had to be rushed to a local hospital where he is listed in serious condition but is expected to recover.
A second victim also sustained a gunshot wound as he drove a pickup along boulevard Hidalgo. The victim was described as a 90-year-old man who was shot in the face but the injury was more of a grazing wound and is expected to recover.
By Friday afternoon, authorities responded to a call of a man who was shot at an open-air market on the western side of the city. By the time authorities arrived, the man had died from gunshot wounds to the head.
Later that evening, authorities responded to the Guerreno rural community near the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge where they found a deceased man who had been shot multiple times.
Both fatalities are believed to have been targeted killings connected to infighting within the Gulf Cartel.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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