Tamaulipas Officials Working with US Agencies to Reduce Kidnappings
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REYNOSA, TAMAULIPAS – The state of Tamaulipas, Mexico responded to a charge by a U.S. senator.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham described similarities between Tamaulipas and war zones during a visit to the Rio Grande Valley Friday.
"On the other side of the border, the State Department has designated right across the border as a level four travel zone. Do you know what gets you to level four? Afghanistan and Syria," said Graham.
A Reynosa woman agrees; one of her family members was kidnapped.
“There’s still dangers, there been massacres, kidnappings, there's been everything," she says.
She says she wants to know what authorities are doing to reduce the crime in Reynosa.
"People no longer talk about it; they don't want to say anything," she says.
CHANNEL 5 NEWS reached out to the office of Tamaulipas Governor Francisco Cabeza de Vaca.
A spokesman for the governor, Luis Alberto Rodriguez, says Tamaulipas is the only state in Mexico working with seven agencies from the U.S. to cut down on crimes such as kidnappings.
"Yes, we are working on that to decrease. We are working on another area that's very important, strengthening state authority. In the last two years it increased 1,743 officers," says Rodriguez.
He adds Tamaulipas ideally wants to have 6,000 to 7,000 state police, but in 2016 they were assigned 3,000.
For more information watch the video above.
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