A little paint and stucco and the city hall will look like new.
Posted on 12/01/2019 10:13:17 AM PST by ransomnote
The City Hall of Villa Union is riddled with bullet holes after a gun battle between Mexican security forces and suspected cartel gunmen on Saturday. At least 21 people were killed, four of them police officers when an armed group in a convoy of trucks stormed the town 40 miles southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas. (Gerardo Sanchez/AP)
MEXICO CITY — Gunmen attacked a town hall in northern Mexico, authorities said Sunday, triggering a series of clashes with security forces that left 21 dead — most of them suspected members of an organized crime group.
The attack started at around noon on Saturday, when men in at least 14 trucks brandishing assault rifles swept into the town of Villa Union, around 40 miles southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas. Authorities said they were believed to be members of the Cartel of the Northeast, an offshoot of the once-powerful Zetas.
The gunmen unleashed a furious battle at the town hall, leaving the facade peppered with bullet holes. Mexican police and soldiers fought the attackers and then pursued them as they fled, according to the Coahuila state officials.
The security forces, backed by army helicopters, chased the gunmen down in an operation that stretched into Sunday morning. The dead included four state police officers and 17 alleged cartel members.
SNIP
The clash came days after President Trump said he planned to designate Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations — prompting fierce opposition from Mexican authorities. Mexico fears such a designation could hurt investment and tourism and open the possibility of unilateral U.S. action in its southern neighbor.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said he planned to meet this week with U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr to try to head off the terror designation and step up cooperation in fighting violence.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
A little paint and stucco and the city hall will look like new.
The fact that the cartel rolled in with its own vehicles openly emblazoned with its logo indicates to me that the only army in Mexico is the cartel army.
The problem, of course, is that some of the trucks had Texas plates. Stolen? Fake? Possibly, but Mexico should bear in mind that there is a border criminal enterprise going on and they should support us in getting rid of it.
I suspect that cartels are moving to control new territory along the border, as barrier is being built in the previously most valuable stretches.
The three biggest corridors for illegal traffic - San Diego, the Rio Grande Valley and Yuma - will all be substantially closed by the end of next year, with Trump-style super barrier system. The cartels must prepare new routes, where the terrain allows.
The more than 200 mile unfenced gap along the Rio Grande in Texas, between Falcon Lake (South of Laredo) and Box Canyon (just North of Del Rio), is the biggest and best open stretch of border for smuggling left in Texas after the Rio Grande Valley gets closed off - arguably it will then be the best stretch of the whole US/Mexico border for illegal traffic, after the currently funded barrier building is finished (end of 2020).
52 miles of that stretch already has this year’s money budgeted against it (but that contract has not yet been awarded).
The attack described in this article, in Villa Union, Coahuila; is on the highway to Guerrero, just around the Northern edge of where that new barrier will run (52 miles running North from the Colombia Laredo Port of Entry).
We should do everything we can to get the cartels fighting with each other. The shifting smuggling routes will naturally make them butt heads over turf.
If you'll read John Locke's "Second Treatises of Government" you'll find that the Cartels are the government in the areas that they control. Mexico has reverted back to feudalism where various warrior families are fighting for territory inside of a weak kingdom.
“Mexico has reverted back to feudalism, where various warrior families are fighting for territory inside of a weak kingdom.”
Like the days of Pancho Villa and Santa Ana...
The fact that the cartel rolled in with its own vehicles openly emblazoned with its logo indicates to me that the only army in Mexico is the cartel army.
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Good way to say it.
I think the president is chosen by the cartel - otherwise they’d assassinate anyone who wasn’t onboard with them.
The cartel proudly displays their name (CDN - Cartel Del Noreste), like they were the Government.
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I do think they are the government for now. :/
“Never let a crisis go to waist” - R Emmanuel
“Crisis” = “FedGov Control”
And often, these are manufactured.
p
Good thing Trump is building the wall. I wonder what kind of border security is near this area.
17 vs 4
Great outcome.
superior training for good guys?
bad guys lured into a trap?
Little bit of both
Half the cartel members are probably employed by the Mexican government.
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