Authorities killed a cartel gunman and arrested a second following a chase and shootout in the border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas. The shootout comes as government officials continue to claim that Tamaulipas is a safe state. The U.S. Department of State labeled the region in the same category as countries with active warzones.
The pursuit and gunbattle occurred on Monday night in the city’s south side near the Periodista neighborhood. It wasn’t until days later that a short surveillance camera video surfaced that captured the shootout.
The short video captured the sound of sirens and gunfire, followed by the images of a truck crashing into parked vehicles.
The shootout began when a group of infantrymen from Mexico’s Navy, commonly known as Marines, had been patrolling the city when a group of gunmen pulled up next to them and began throwing road spikes and shooting at the troops, an incident report obtained by Breitbart Texas revealed. The military forces fought off the attack and chased the gunmen as they tried to flee.
The chase ended shortly after when the driver of the vehicle used by the gunmen lost control and crashed. Inside, authorities found one deceased gunman and a second gunman who sustained various injuries.
Due to widespread corruption at the city and state level, state police forces, National Guard, and Mexican Army forces rarely clash with Gulf Cartel gunmen in Matamoros. Currently, the Mexican Navy and the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office are the only institutions that actively clash with gunmen in the region. The Gulf Cartel staged protests outside of the Mexican Navy base in Matamoros in an attempt to stop the enforcement actions against them.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas, including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and their original Spanish. This article was written by “Francisco Morales”, J.A. Espinoza”, and “J.C. Sanchez” .