[Mexico:]Shootout at PGR offices in Matamoros

The Brownsville Herald ^ | June 29, 2010

[SwinneySwitch]

The approach of Tropical Storm Alex apparently hasn’t had an effect on border violence.

This morning, sources confirmed a gunfire attack on the Matamoros building of Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office –PGR.

The building is located on Sixth Street, a few blocks away from B&M International Bridge.

Official information from the PGR hasn’t been released and calls to their public relations office in Reynosa went unanswered this morning.

A source with firsthand knowledge of criminal activity in Matamoros reported that several gunmen in SUV’s fired upon the building late Monday or Tuesday morning. The information was corroborated by a Mexican law enforcement official.

It couldn’t be learned at the time if the attack left anyone injured or dead

[Army Air Corps]

The US and Canada may have to send a putative expedition to Mexico.

[livius]

We sent military help to Colombia, at least in the form of advisors, when it was under attack by the leftist/drug funded guerrillas of FARC.

Something rarely discussed about the Mexican situation is exactly why it has gotten worse in the last few years, even as Mexico has moved towards full democracy and a less corrupt system. This is precisely because it involves Mexican domestic politics.

For decades, Mexico was essentially a one-party state, with the PRI (leftist, equivalent of Dems) controlling every office. Corruption abounded at both the federal and local levels, but everybody had worked out who got what cut of the action. When the PAN (conservative, equivalent of the GOP) finally got into power at a national level, things began to change but only very slowly, partly because Fox was a bit of a loose cannon and not a great administrator. In response to even modest attempts to control them, however, the drug gangs began to strike back.

Calderon, who was elected in 2006, announced from the very start that this would be one of his priorities. And the drug gangs were equally determined not to let him take Mexico away from them. They are supported in this by various leftist groups, who opposed Calderon’s victory so much that there were strikes and riots in the areas controlled by the left. Until recently, the politicians who have been killed by the drug gangs have all been from the PAN.

Last week, a PRI candidate for a state governorship was killed by the drug gangs. Nobody knows what it means, whether they are suddenly turning on the leftist hands that fed them, or whether it was a warning to the PRI not to become too friendly with the PAN, since the man who was killed had appeared recently with his PAN opponent and they had both pledged that, regardless of which of them won, they would work together and one of their targets would be lawlessness and the fact that the drug gangs were taking over their country.

This does mark a new front in the attacks, in any case, and shows you how brazen and confident the drug gangs are right now.