MEXICO CITY (AP) — A pair of clashes between armed groups on Friday left an unknown number dead and injured in the Mexican city of Matamoros — on the border with Brownsville, Texas — and authorities have asked people to stay home. them. while law enforcement patrolled the streets.
The public security secretary of the state of Tamaulipas, where Matamoros is located in Mexico’s far northeast, immediately ruled out that the military or police were involved in the shooting, after soldiers shot dead five young people a few days ago in a controversial incident. in the town of Nuevo Laredo, on the border with Laredo, Texas.
“There were two armed incidents between unidentified civilians, deploring loss of life and injuries. The accuracy of the victims is corroborated,” the local SSP said through its social media accounts.
“The general population is recommended to stay at home so as not to expose their integrity,” he said. He also asked parents not to send their children to school in the afternoon. The SSP refrained from indicating whether the protagonists of the clashes belonged to criminal groups and only described them as “civilians”.
The United States Consulate in the city issued an alert message to its citizens after the report of the shooting.
Videos of the situation in the city were posted on social media, in one of which it was possible to see how armed men dragged two corpses to a van in broad daylight and surrounded by vehicles, some waiting to be able to continue on their way and others move away, they turn around
Tamaulipas, on the border with Texas, has seen a strong wave of violence linked to organized crime and it is common for rival groups to take their dead after clashes.
The two main cartels in the region are the Gulf Cartel, which has its stronghold in Matamoros, and the Gulf Cartel (a splinter of the old Zetas) in Nuevo Laredo, 330 kilometers further west. But there are also many cells from each of these groups fighting each other.
According to the Secretary of Security, both the Army and Navy, National Guard, Federal Attorney’s Office, and State Police have increased “their presence through tours of the entire urban area and surrounding areas to protect citizens”.
Last weekend, five young men were killed by the army in Nuevo Laredo, in an event that has not yet been clarified as to what human rights organizations consider excessive use of force. lethal. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the case.