Extrajudicial Killing In Tamaulipas? National Guard Kills 2 Then Reportedly 'Plants' Evidence at the Scene

"MX" for Borderland Beat; TY to "El Zacatecas"

Residents of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, confronted elements of the National Guard (GN) after a shootout in which they were involved that left two people dead. Witnesses say that elements of the GN shot and killed a man who was driving a truck and a woman who was a street vendor.

Reports say that the shootout occurred on the streets of Ocampo and Victoria, in the historic center of the city, just two blocks from the International Bridge that connects with Laredo, Texas.

The driver of a blue car, a 42-year-old customs broker named Jorge Alberto Rivera Cardoza, died of a gunshot to the head. The other victim, a woman of unknown identity, was outside a church when she was killed in the crossfire.

After the events, residents of Nuevo Laredo protested against the GN, assuring that they tried to "plant" weapons, a bag with drugs, and radio communication equipment in Rivera's car.

Local reports say that the people who were there took these objects and tried to hand them back to the GN. However, the GN refused and chose to leave the scene.

The Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Committee (CDHNL) filed a complaint with Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) against the GN. In addition, they blamed the officers for trying to tamper the crime scene by "planting" ammunition, drugs, and communication devices.

WARNING - Graphic Video Below

Video recording from a witness at the scene showing the dead person inside his vehicle and protestors gathering around the GN members.

Recent events

This incident comes a few days after 30 Mexican Navy members were ordered arrested over the disappearance of an unspecified number of people in Tamaulipas. Prosecutors say the victims went missing when the marines deployed in the border city of Nuevo Laredo.

The marines were handed over to the attorney general's office last Friday "in compliance with arrest warrants... for the alleged crime of forced disappearance of persons", the Navy said in a statement. No details have been made public.

Enforced disappearances are rarely fully investigated in Mexico and almost all cases are left unsolved. Thousands of victims end up unidentified in morgues across the country or buried in clandestine graves. Corrupt security forces are suspected of involvement in many of the disappearances, either to cover up wrongdoings that led to deaths or in collusion with criminal organisations who hold the victims for ransom, activists say.

Tamaulipas, one of Mexico's most violent states, has one of the highest rates of missing persons in the country. Many of the disappearances take place on roads leading to the US.

The city of Nuevo Laredo is the headquarters of the Northeast Cartel (Cartel del Noreste, CDN), a faction of the old Zetas cartel. 

The aftermath of the shootout; in the background several people observed and recorded with their phones

Sources: El Universal; Animal Politico; Elefante Blanco; BBC; Milenio