National Guard and military vehicles take part in an operation to transfer two of the four US citizens kidnapped in Mexico's crime-ridden northeast, back to Brownsville in the US, after the other two were found dead, in Matamoros, Tamaulipas State, Mexico.U.S.
In the most recent instance, a cartel delivered five bound and gagged low-level gang members to the local authorities, dumping them along a public road where they were collected by police and quickly indicted as the killers and kidnappers of the four U.S. citizens from North Carolina. Welcome to justice, Mexican-style. Who knows if they are fall guys or truly guilty? Mexican authorities seldom convict murderers in open criminal trials, yet often pronounce cases solved and closed.
We celebrated True’s high school graduation years ago in Matamoros, first with a mass at a Catholic convent and then with his extended Mexican family at a Matamoros restaurant. We’ve shared many other occasions, especially birthdays, in Brownsville, but on occasions such as last month, we cross over to Matamoros. Word on the street last month signaled it was safe to cross. Rival cartels were quiet.
As we neared the bridge to return home, Martha’s phone lit up with text messages warning that cartel violence had broken out on the city’s outskirts. With me in the car and traffic backed up at the Veterans International Bridge, it would take hours for us to cross. Without me in the car, Martha’s global crossing permit would allow her to quickly cross in the express lane.