Uptick in Tamaulipas Violence Prompts Stern Warning
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MIGUEL ALEMAN, TAMAULIPAS - A shooting in broad daylight in the border city of Miguel Aleman in Mexico is prompting a stern warning from the Tamaulipas governor.
There are concerns that mounting pressure could overflow into the U.S. side of the border.
A video capturing a gun battle in Miguel Aleman on Tuesday showed a resident taking shelter as the gun shots rang out in the city in broad daylight.
Governor of the border state of Tamaulipas, Francisco Garcia Cabeza de Vaca visited residents Wednesday and declared, "We're not going to keep up pretenses that nothing is happening here.
Things are happening here and we're going to take action."
Feuding cartels are the source of the violence.
They're fighting in a part of the Mexican state with an invisible border running through it, explained Art Fontes, former FBI agent and safety consultant at Fontes International Solutions. "The area of Ciudad Mier and it's like the dividing point to Miguel Aleman."
He explained the Cartel del Noreste, or CDN, is set up in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.
They're trying to get into territory of Miguel Aleman held by a faction of the Cartel del Golfo, CDG.
Governor Cabeza de Vaca said a recent change in security created a breach. "I deeply regret that they've removed a checkpoint on the ranch-lands between Mier and Miguel Aleman.
It helped keep criminal groups from entering Miguel Aleman and this area of the border," the governor says.
Fontes says there are unverified reports of a CDN convoy trickling into Miguel Aleman. "I don't believe they would send a convoy of people, 20 trucks into Miguel Aleman, because that would be too high-profile. I believe that they came sporadically and that they're already there."
He believes this can affect our side of the border as well.
"If the violence continues like this, and it raises up a level, you'd see the bad guys, the cartel people actually coming over to the U.S. side to hide out," he says.
Governor Cabeza de Vaca said he spoke to federal authorities to find a solution to the removed checkpoint.
Before leaving, he left a warning. "To those who believe they're going to intimidate authorities, they're mistaken," he says.
He plans to revisit the city next week.
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