Posted on 12/01/2007 9:57:24 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
Shooting outside downtown restaurant left 6 dead, 3 wounded
RIO BRAVO The Mexican army cordoned off Rio Bravo early Friday, one day after a shooting outside a downtown restaurant left three hospitalized and six dead, including prominent political figure Juan Antonio Guajardo Anzalduá.
Soldiers searched vehicles leaving and entering the city, which sits in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas across the Rio Grande from Donna(Texas). Some residents of the city said the incident has frightened them, and the residents fear violence in the city could escalate. We are afraid. We are very scared, one Rio Bravo woman said in Spanish, requesting anonymity out of concern for her safety. We think that something bigger could happen.
Gunmen opened fire about 5:30 p.m. Thursday as Guajardo and his entourage left a restaurant on Madero Avenue. Guajardo was the former mayor of Rio Bravo, a two-term representative and a one-time senator. He was seeking re-election before he died Thursday, one day before his 49th birthday.
The spray of bullets ripped through Guajardos group and several bystanders.
Authorities identified the deceased as Gerardo Enrique Guzman Velásquez, Carlos Hugo Moncada Gonzalez, Jesús Mata García, and federal agents Gastón Miguel Cequeda Garcia and Israel Sanchez García. The federal agents have guarded Guajardo for months, after an assassination attempt on him earlier this year.
Tight lips
Law enforcement officials revealed little about the investigation, which will be led by Assistant District Attorney No. 3 Gerardo Treviño Martinez. Treviños office said he spent Friday in Reynosa, overseeing the delivery of the bodies and interviewing the three injured people, who were hospitalized in Reynosa.
One of the injured victims is a federal agent, who suffered a bullet wound to his abdomen.
A bullet grazed a womans chest, and a third womans leg broke when a bullet struck her.
So far, authorities have released no motive for the shooting. Earlier in the year, the Zetas organized crime syndicate had threatened Guajardos life, and he had also narrowly avoided an assassination attempt, prompting the government to assign bodyguards to him.
Reynosa will mourn him
Authorities returned Guajardos body to his family Thursday evening.
The Valle de la Paz funeral home in Reynosa will handle the arraignments, and there will be a visitation today at the Casa de la Cultura on Madero Avenue in Rio Bravo, between streets Juarez and 16 de septiembre.
As of late Friday, the Reynosa funeral home continued to prepare the body. On Sunday, a Mass will be celebrated in Guajardos honor at the San Jose Catholic Church on Argentina Street in Reynosa. He will be buried in that city at the Valle de la Paz cemetery.
Rio Bravos current mayor, Juan De Dios Cavazos Cardenas, has offered to have Guajardo lie in state outside City Hall to honor him for his public service. Guajardo was not running against Cavazos, because in Mexico mayors must wait a term before seeking re-election.
As of press deadline, it was unclear if Guajardos widow, Sofia de Guajardo, had accepted Cavazos offer.
We feel overwhelmed, Cavazos Cardenas said in Spanish during a brief interview at Rio Bravo City Hall.
Zetas ping!
please FReepMail me if you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list.
Get out now ST!!!!!
I thought this was a Mexican history thread!
Everyone knows The Duke secured Rio Bravo.
Nothing major, just a typical Mexican election.
Rio Bravo = Rio Grande, from the Mexican side.
You beat me to it!
That took a lot of courage. It seems like anytime one hears about a Mexican public figure trying to do something about the drug gangs, the next thing you know, that person is assassinated. So people who could be good leaders and help Mexico develop are constantly being eliminated.
A shame as northern Mexico away from the border is a relatively prosperous and peaceful area (see Monterrey, Durango, etc.). Juarez is the worst city north of DF.
Our good neighbor and ally Mexico.
Send us your unwashed, uneducated masses.
Narco mafia.
No, really, it is.
Because American citizens are willing ,nay,eager, to buy and ingest illegall drugs in hope of "highs" and "better sex",plus those fine American businessmen and "farmers" who care only that the hired illegal immigrant labor is cheap,this nation is the culprit.
If U.S. of A. was not the place to make money selling illegal drugs and labor ,they would not be here.
I thought Rio Bravo was Mexican for the Rio Grande River, starting in Colorado, going through New Mexico and then forming the boundary between Texas and Mexico. Is there also a Mexican town called Rio Bravo?
It may help if Mexico would try to provide jobs for their unwashed and uneducated.
Arizonas new law making it illegal to hire illegals is having wonderful effects.
Lots of illegals are leaving there.
Stay tuned for the Mexican Civil War.
Si. Rio Bravo is also a Texas colonia near Laerdo
Laerdo = Laredo
Not Monterrey for over a year now, Clemenza.
The Dangers Of Crossing The Border
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1928070/posts
Click on keyword Monterrey.
Sorry to hear that. I found Monterrey to be a safe (and clean) place when I used to travel down there from 99-02.
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