This from the Brownsville Herald, confirming reports from yesterday.
Mexican authorities confirmed that Ezequiel "Tony Tormenta" Cardenas Guillen—one of the two leaders of the Gulf Cartel and a pivotal figure in recent border drug wars—was killed in a shootout in Matamoros Friday.
Violence across the city throughout the day left at least 47 others dead, including a reporter for a Matamoros newspaper, sources with knowledge of the situation said.
Three of Cardenas Guillen’s aides, or bodyguards, also were killed, according to Alejandro Poire, spokesman for the Mexican government. He gave no other information other than confirming the death of Cardenas Guillen and his aides.
Two Mexican soldiers also were killed, according to a release Friday night by the Mexican navy. That statement gave a total of six dead in Matamoros and said that "as of 7:45 p.m. it had no confirmation" of a death toll of more than 40.
The article describes what appears to be a three-cornered battle involving the Zetas, the Gulf Cartel, and Mexican military units. Again, given the tradition of corruption in the Mexican military, it's very difficult to know if there were any 'white hats' involved, or if it simply was about who is to be in control of the drug trade.
In a very real sense, it is not for us in the United States to help them sort that out. Mexico has been bloody, chaotic and corrupt since before Cortez arrived, and we probably are not going to change that fact.
What we are obligated as a nation and culture to do, however, is everything we can to draw a hard line, and make certain their internal struggle remains theirs. Southern Texas is a huge agricultural area, home to many retirees, a lot of US citizens living on US soil. There is no gray area about this. Is it time to mobilize our reserve units to guard our border? Isn't it past time?
Memory has faded here, but the Mexican 'revolution' ca. 1910-1920 was a horrible bloody affair that spilled over our southern border. General Pershing led an expeditionary force into northern Mexico in 1916 to attempt to chase down the perpetrators, with limited success.
This approach would not be an option in this day. But, given how populous the Southwest is, the potential for tragedy is much greater in our time, if the current conflict spills over into the US. We have to pursue solutions that don't involve sending our tanks into the Sonoran desert. Now, not next year. For the sake of millions of innocents on both sides of the border.
As OS mentioned last night, the Mexicans read our election results as well. Every state on the border, save California, has a Republican governor, and heavy Republican presence in the legislatures. Most of the states bordering the border states (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Utah) are now in GOP hands, and the Dems rule in the others by slim majorities, with large local sections in GOP control. The sense of sympathy is receding quickly, and the sense of 'We intend to live safely in our own homes' is increasing.
So many innocents have been killed in Mexico, and the flood of drugs (fueled by our demand for the stuff) has created havoc north of the border. The best course of action for our culture has to be to protect the border aggressively, pursue the dealers within our borders ever more aggressively, and quietly insist that the problem will not resolve until the grownups in Mexico (people who believe in simple things like the rule of law and free institutions) take charge.
It will be a ten-year process, if we begin today.
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