Matamoros Considered One of Top 3 Dangerous Cities in Tam.
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BROWNSVILLE - The attorney general for Tamaulipas called the border city of Matamoros one of the three most dangerous in the Mexican state this week.
CHANNEL 5 NEWS spoke to several Matamoros residents in Brownsville. Many of them said they try to live a normal life despite their constant fear.
Silvia Villa Visencio said it’s been two and a half years since one of her six children disappeared from her home in Matamoros. She believed he was a victim of organized crime in Matamoros.
“I don’t even drive my truck anymore… They’ll take your trucks, they’ll take your money,” she said.
According to recently published reports, Tamaulipas’s new attorney general, Irving Barrios Mojica, admitted Matamoros is one of the three most dangerous cities in the state.
Longtime Matamoros resident Maria De Jesus Cruz Gonzalez said the uncertainty makes her stay at home unless she has to go out.
“There is a lot of insecurity, but we have to keep on moving forward. We can’t just stay home. We have to get things done,” she said.
Cruz Gonzalez said she’s adjusted her lifestyle to reduce the risks of getting caught in crossfire. She said she doesn’t leave her home at night and rarely travels to visit family in other Mexican cities.
“I hope things will change someday because it’s already been several years that we’ve been living with this insecurity,” she said.
Francisco Galvan, spokesman for the new Tamaulipas Gov. Francisco Garcia Cabeza De Vaca, said violence shouldn’t be the norm for people in Tamaulipas. However, he said it will take time to get rid of the violence in the area.
“Violence cannot be something that should be accepted as the norm in daily life, in the state nor the country. We need to reestablish order and peace throughout the county in order to guarantee a more common and ordinary life for all of our citizens,” he said.
Although Galvan didn’t deny violence in Matamoros exists, he said it will take some time to end it. He said certain things need to happen in order to help cut back on corruption that aide the ongoing violence.
“First, we need economic resources. We need to have a Mexican police force, as the governor has said, that’s better paid, better trained and with higher moral and education standards, in order to have trustworthy individuals working to fight crime,” he said.
For Visencio, her home is still the safest place she can be in Matamoros. She said she’s hopeful things will eventually change.
The Mexican consulate in Brownsville could not comment on safety issues. They did advice anyone planning to travel into Mexico to research current travel warnings, and even consider traveling with the caravans escorted by federal authorities during this time of the year.
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