Government officials in Mexico have been working to portray an image of peace in the border state of Tamaulipas by using doctored crime stats and making misleading statements to news outlets. In reality, several drug cartels have been waging fierce turf wars throughout the state. The violence rose exponentially in recent weeks as drug cartels have become more brazen.
Due to the information void caused by the Tamaulipas government, the high risks of reporting on drug cartels, and the pressure from government officials, established news outlets have been forced to shy away from reporting the growing crime waves. In recent weeks, locals have once again turned to social media pages as their only source of information about high-impact crimes such as kidnappings, extortions, carjackings, and cartel shootouts.
So far this month, cities like Reynosa, Rio Bravo, San Fernando, and Abasolo, all in Tamaulipas, have seen high levels of violence where convoys of gunmen in armored vehicles have become commonplace while state and federal authorities often are nowhere to be found.
In an attempt to further minimize the appearance of violence, the Tamaulipas government routinely sends out social media messages highlighting days without murders or other high-impact crimes. Those claims fail to stand up to scrutiny when compared with the regular shootouts and other violent cases taking place throughout the state.
As Breitbart Texas has reported, the Tamaulipas government has gone as far as to dismiss travel alerts from the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros, where they warned about ransom kidnappings where gunmen were taking U.S. citizens and residents and demanding several thousands of dollars for their release. Tamaulipas government officials claimed that the travel warnings were unreliable because they were not based on their statistics but on simple hearsay.
This week, gunmen torched two trailers with clothing that were driving through San Fernando after the owners of the merchandise failed to pay a protection fee. In other parts of the state, drug cartels have sought to collect a tax on any vehicle that is sold by private individuals and have been threatening, kidnapping, and even killing those who have not paid.
Threat left behind by the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas warning that those who did not pay the cartel tax for selling cars would meet a similar fate (Credit: Breitbart Texas / Cartel Chronicles)
Government officials hid information about the case and similar cases, trying to play it off as highway accidents.
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.