Across the border from McAllen, Texas, a war has been raging in affluent Mexican neighborhoods, main streets and shopping areas as cartels openly fire rocket-propelled grenade launchers and assault rifles at law enforcement authorities.
No one is safe – not even young children as they walk to school.
“We heard a lot of gunshots,” cried one child as he escaped Felipe Carrillo Puerto Primary School holding his father’s hand Tuesday morning.
The street wars between police and gangs shut down parts of Reynosa, Mexico, as Mexican media estimated the death toll at 20 with dozens injured, the McAllen Monitor reported.
U.S. authorities think Hector Sauceda Gamboa, the suspected regional leader of the Gulf Cartel, was among five gunmen who were shot.
A U.S. federal official told the Monitor that Gamboa, known as “El Karis,” was killed in his upscale neighborhood on one of the busiest streets in the city.
The gunmen fired a variety of military-grade weapons, including grenades, a 60 mm mortar and assorted small-arms ammunition.
As many as seven federal police officers reportedly were wounded.
While the street war raged, hundreds of Mexicans, some with small children, blocked roads and international bridges for hours in Reynosa, Ciudad Juarez and Nuevo Laredo. They were protesting Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s army-backed drug war.
Authorities claim there is no correlation between the demonstrations and the gang violence. However, according to the Dallas Morning News, the drug cartels have been paying unarmed citizens to protest military presence.
“Right now, we are in the primary stages and we don’t have any final count on bodies,” Pedro Sosa Lopez, regional coordinator for the Tamaulipas State Police, told the Monitor while he stood only a block from two dead bodies.
According to the report, bullet casings sprinkled the grounds of the Felipe Carrillo Puerto Primary School while children took cover under their desks.
Vehicles were left abandoned along the busy highway. Bullet holes riddled an SUV covered in a spray of blood.
U.S. officials prepared for a violence spillover by deploying heavily armed authorities to international crossings that reopened by 3 p.m. Tuesday.
