EXCLUSIVE: Mexican Governor Celebrates Independence Day Surrounded by Army amid Cartel Threats

A Mexican border state governor celebrated the country’s Independence Day in a plaza filled with military and police forces as opposed to local revelers. The extreme security measures come days after a suspicious house explosion and threats allegedly from the Sinaloa Cartel.

On Thursday evening, Coahuila Gov. Miguel Angel Riquelme held the traditional Independence Scream from the governor’s palace in Saltillo. Unlike previous years, the celebration was not attended by the general public.

Breitbart Texas was able to document how state police officers sealed off all the access points to the palace hours before the celebration.

Locals were not allowed to enter the restricted area.

As the night set, 50 members of the Mexican Army’s 69^th Infantry Battalion moved in and lined up for the ceremony.

The area surrounding the governor’s palace was filled with more than 100 state police officers, 50 members of Mexico’s National Guard, and 50 local police.

The extreme measures come days after three agents with the Coahuila Attorney Generals’ Office died in a suspicious house explosion. The deceased agents and others injured in the blast were members of the security detail assigned to the border state’s top attorney.

Authorities tried to claim that the explosion was caused by the accumulation of gas from a leak, however, the Sinaloa Cartel wasted almost no time in claiming credit. The cartel singled out allegedly corrupt state police officers and claimed that there would be subsequent attacks they prepare to seize Coahuila as turf.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “C.E. Herrera” and “J.M. Martinez” from Coahuila.