Watch: Venezuelan Migrant Describes Cartel Attack on Border Encampment in Mexico

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Breitbart Texas spoke with a Venezuelan migrant recently released on the downtown streets of Brownsville, Texas, who provided a before and after video of a migrant encampment. The migrant confirmed reports that members of the feared Gulf Cartel attacked the encampment last week. The migrant says the cartel members were angered by the Venezuelan migrants helping to ferry others across the Rio Grande using inflatable mattresses as makeshift rafts.

Breitbart Texas spoke to the migrant who identified himself as “Danny.” For safety reasons, he refused to provide a last name due to his fears of relation by the cartel. Breitbart Texas reported from Matamoros and obtained exclusive photos of the Venezuelan migrants using air mattresses and makeshift rafts to ferry migrants across the Rio Grande. This is a function that is normally exclusively controlled by the Gulf Cartel.

In the video, Danny says he shot to send to family members in Venezuela, he shows the tents erected in the encampment located on the banks of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. Danny describes, in Spanish, the primitive structures made of plastic materials. The materials, he explained were gathered in and around the Mexican border city. Neatly organized eating and cooking utensils and supplies are shown as well as a large grill the migrants used to prepare food.

Later in the video, Danny shows the aftermath of the cartel attack on the camp. He says the attack was carried out as retaliation for some migrants ferrying other migrants across the Rio Grande without compensating the drug and migrant smuggling cartel. Danny denied that people charged migrants money to ferry them across the river, although other reports indicate otherwise.

Later in the video, Danny describes the items taken from camp by the cartel, including the tents and provisions they had accumulated during their stay. Danny told Breitbart the cartel members entered the camp in the middle of the night on April 21 and began burning the tents and pursuing the fleeing migrants. Most of the migrants managed to escape into the darkness.

One Venezuelan migrant was not so lucky, according to Danny. He says the cartel members beath the migrant. That migrant suffered a broken leg during the ordeal. The migrant can be seen in the video being provided treatment by the Mexico’s Red Cross EMT’s. The migrant was evaluated and, as the video shows, was determined to need further treatment at a Matamoros hospital.

Danny said he and the others that were assisting the migrants in their crossing entered the United States after the attack but others remained in Matamoros choosing to continue the activity. After a short period of detention by the Border Patrol, Danny, travelling alone, was released and allowed to pursue his asylum claim.

As reported by Breitbart Texas, thousands of migrants, mostly Venezuelan nationals have crossed into the city of Brownsville from Matamoros, Mexico in recent weeks. According to a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol, some 21,000 Venezuelan nationals have been apprehended in Brownsville in the last 12 days.

Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol.  Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.