REYNOSA, Tamaulipas — Mexican investigators beat and tortured a prostitute in order to get her to confirm their version of events regarding the alleged execution of a group of cartel members in the town of Tlataya. The version that the Mexican government wanted was that the soldiers fought off an attack and killed the 22 gunmen.
The other version of the June 30 shooting, as told by a self-admitted prostitute and the mother of a female teenage gang member in the group, was that the cartel gunmen had surrendered and the military had executed 12 to 15 of them, the Associated Press reported.
While most of Mexico continues to be in an uproar about the September kidnapping and execution of 43 education students from the rural town of Ayotzinapa by police and cartel members in the Mexican state of Guerrero, the Tlataya shooting appears to have quickly died down in the minds of most Mexicans.
While the AP reporting does show an apparent cover-up by military, Mexico state and federal investigators, the killing of cartel gunmen is not the same as killing a group of students in the mind of most Mexicans along the border.
“Those are two different things, with the Ayotzinapa kids you have a senseless murder,” said Ramiro Hernandez a citizen from the Mexican border city of Reynosa who spoke with Breitbart Texas in Reynosa, which has been oppressed by drug cartels for years subjecting its citizens to regular shootouts, extortion and kidnapping. “I could care less about the soldiers killing sicarios (cartel gunmen) I actually prefer them dead than in jail from where they can just bribe a judge and get out.”
The sentiment is also shared by Miguel Pereda, a shopkeeper at the Plaza Periferico shopping mall in Reynosa who spoke with Breitbart Texas and claims to have to pay a regular “protection” fee to a group of young men who claim to be part the local organized crime.
“If those Chilanguitos (slang used to describe those from Mexico City) don’t want the soldiers to do their job, please send those soldiers to Reynosa,” Pereda said in Spanish. “The soldiers here are the only ones that will fight the cartels; the local police does nothing as a matter of fact that department is the training school for cartel members.”
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