Executions and Shootouts Precede the Elections in Tamaulipas

By: Juan Alberto Cedillo | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

With less than 24 hours of going out to vote for the more than 2 million Tamaulipas residents, a series of violent incidents have taken place, including several assassinations, including the assassination of a ministerial agent, attacks against the federal police, which left two officers injured; as well as shootouts along the border that caused the alert level of the state and federal authorities to increase.

The most recent event was on Saturday afternoon in the border city of Reynosa where shootouts and persecutions were reported between military personnel and members of organized crime.

Half past 12:30, a chase and shootout was reported along the highway to Monterrey.

At 14:00 hours, the shootouts and persecutions had spread to various parts of the border city.

Since Saturday afternoon, the authorities have not yet reported the final results of the shootouts.

In addition, during the early hours of Saturday, a group of armed men ambushed a patrol vehicle of the federal police that was guarding a neighborhood in the west of Nuevo Laredo.

The criminals attacked the patrol vehicle with rifles from different points and as a result, left two officers injured.

Hours before, the Tamaulipas Coordination Group (GCT) reported that on Friday, June 3, members of the Secretariat of National Defense were attacked by armed civilians along a gap leading to a ranch located in the municipality of Nueva Ciudad Guerrero.

“By repelling the attack in defense of their lives, the soldiers took down one of the assailants, who has not yet been identified,” the statement said.

Friday night, the number of people killed totaled four.  Among them, was a person dismembered and another beheaded in Ciudad Victoria.

Ministerial Agent Executed

On Thursday, the ministerial agent Carlos Baudelio García was also found executed in the streets of the neighborhood San Marcos, in the Tamaulipas capital.  Other news articles claim he was a former ministerial agent.

On Friday, a narco-manta was hung signed by the CDN against the Los Zetas Vieja Escuela (Old School Zetas) where they attribute Carlos García as a collaborator:

“…I’m leaving your little friend and collaborator here, Carlos Baudelio Garcia Vazquez, also known as “El Negro” or “La Changa”, active member of Grupo Bravo of the Old School Zetas in charge of handling kidnappings that were made by Los Bravos and Los Zetas, look at the capital and the areas of Padilla, Berretal, and Santa Engracia, diverting investigations with the anti-kidnapping group since your friend Comandante Mariano de la Fuente was in place…”

“The same accusations were made by the current director of the ministerial police Porfirio Castillo who says about some agents that they work as liaisons, bosses, and commanders.  He has ‘arranged kidnapping’ from the ‘attorney and governor’ such as the kidnapping of footballer Alan Pulido and of others ‘kidnapped by the Zeta leader Pancho Carreon’ in Xicotencatl and El Mante.”

The CDN manta ends threatening the ministerial police for them to ‘open, or to align’ or they’re ‘going to end up the same or worse’ and without naming anyone in particular they warn: ‘Why do you want an armored vehicle if one day you have to come out faggots jaja”

The violent events increased vigilance to a maximum alert for the elections being held today (Sunday), where around 2.5 million citizens will go to the polls to elect governors, mayors, and representatives; after a campaign where candidates emphasized the issues of insecurity and violence.

Gubernatorial elections will be held today (June 5) in 12 states including: Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Durango, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Puebla, Quintana Roo, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz and Zacatecas.

Tamaulipas elections will be monitored by around 14,000 troops from the three levels of government.

The alert level also increased because the authorities have reports of threats of violence in the south of the state and in Ciudad Victoria.

Source: Proceso

Categories: Drug War, mexico, reynosa, tamaulipas, violence