The official version of the Reynosa massacre raises more questions than answers: what really happened in Tamaulipas

The arrest of the alleged perpetrators who perpetrated the massacre of 15 innocent civilians in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, far from having closed one of the blackest chapters in the history of the entity, seems to have only fueled speculation and questioning.

Almost two weeks after the attack on civil society, which experts and authorities described as an “unprecedented unusual” event, the interpretations that have tried to justify the motives have been insufficient, including the authorities' own version.

The only consensus that security analysts, journalists and human rights activists have seemed to reach is that what happened in the border city on June 19 is beyond comparison. The type of violence that had been observed in recent years in Reynosa was the result of clashes between criminal groups that disputed the square, considered the heart of the entity because of the size of its population and its economic importance, but it rarely claimed innocent lives.

For years now, the inhabitants of Reynosa have created support networks such as #ReynosaFollow to avoid potential risky situations that compromise their lives and cause them to join the hundreds of collateral victims of the inter-cartel clashes. Perhaps that is why it is difficult to understand the latest direct attack on the civilian population.

“All that is being said is mere speculation. The authorities have not given us any evidence that what they are saying is correct. They are repeating again and again that it was a warming up of the square,” Guadalupe Correa Cabrera, an expert analyst in drug trafficking, told Infobae Mexico.

The official version, supported by Governor Francisco Javier Cabeza de Vaca, explained that the coordination of one of the largest “operational deployments” had led to the timely arrest of the first perpetrators who were allegedly involved in the killing of 15 innocent civilians without any kind of link with organized crime (they were masons, nurses, taxi drivers, traders and students).

Among those arrested — so far 25 — was Jorge Iván Cárdenas Martínez, alias La Vaca, identified as “head of the square” of the cartel in the city of Rio Bravo and alleged executor of the massacre. Another of the detainees, identified as Jonathan Balderas Rodríguez, assured from a hospital bed that the attack against the population simply sought to “heat the square”, and that both he and the rest of the hit men had followed the orders of an individual identified as El Maestrín, alleged leader of a Gulf Cartel cell.

In the world of drug trafficking, when we say “heat the square”, what is meant is that for strategic reasons a criminal group commits crimes of impact in a certain region to divert the attention of state and federal authorities. According to analyst David Saucedo, the objective is to commit a series of violent crimes to direct security forces to regions controlled by the adversary and thus relieve pressure on areas that are of self-interest.

One of the many versions of the motives for the massacre would support the latter hypothesis: the Los Metros faction controlled by Reynosa was struck by the Cyclones cell, the armed wing of the Scorpions, with the aim of dismantling the distribution centers on the Pharr International Bridge. Both cells were born as roots of the Gulf Cartel, but ended up in enmity.

Correa Cabrera, who serves as a professor at George Mason University in Virginia, United States, emphasized that organizations of yesteryear that operated at the regional level can no longer be considered as cartels. He explained that the most accurate thing is to refer to them properly as cells, since they have less sophisticated structures.

However, the professor stressed that another theory would have to do more with an attempt to destabilize the square, not so much for the interests of criminal logistics, but for purely political purposes.

“They don't want to be warming up the square. They are engaged in other activities, not necessarily linked to the drug business, such as human trafficking and fuel theft. They can't do everything. They don't have the capacity. We must not forget that they are cells. Why warm up the square with a caravan? To get the attention of the state? From the federal forces? Do you think that they, who are dedicated to extracting rents, and who live off their criminal businesses in a certain square, will want to attract the attention of the authorities and the international community?” , questioned the university teacher.

Of all the interpretations that have tried to give account of the real reasons for the massacre, perhaps the most disturbing was that given by the chairman of the Human Rights Committee in Nuevo Laredo, Raymundo Ramos Vázquez, who stated, during an interview with Aristegui Noticias, that the massacre could have been committed by some paramilitary group and not necessarily organized crime, which would have “operated directly under the orders of officials of the State government”.

“The people of Reynosa think this was a kind of punishment for losing the governor and his Acción Nacional (PAN) party,” Ramos Vazquez said. This explanation of the activist, although supported by some relatives of those affected, could easily be described as “far-fetched” or even “exaggerated”. However, if that were the case, it would not be taking into account the complex political situation currently being experienced by Tamaulipas, and in particular the city of Reynosa.

Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca, current governor of Tamaulipas, not only has an injunction order against him by the federal Congress and a complaint by the Attorney General's Office (FGR) for having committed crimes of drug trafficking (alleged links with the Gulf Cartel), money laundering and fiscal fraud equated. It is also related to a long and intimate history that inexorably links him to Reynosa, the same city that saw him born.

“There is a struggle between the local congress and the federal congress that has to do more with political issues. (García de Vaca) is very interested because both he and his close relatives are from there. There is an important interest on the part of the governor and his family in maintaining political leadership in the city. The PAN loses and Morena wins, also led by a political rival who once belonged to the same party (Maki Ortiz). They were always at odds, but now more than ever... After losing the last elections, Ortiz's son (Carlos Victor Peña Ortiz) stayed with Reynosa,” Correa explained.

“There is no evidence or research, but it seems to me that it is possible that this is a political issue to warm up the state and destabilize the incoming government in particular,” Correa said.

To all this must be added the role of the Special Operations Group for Public Security (GOPES), the Tamaulipas State Police, which since its inception, and especially since the arrival of Cabeza de Vaca, has been tainted repeatedly by allegations linking it to organized crime and abuses of authority such as extortion and enforced disappearance.

Some members of this squadron were also linked to the Camargo massacre, where 19 Central American migrants were killed in January 2021, near the Mexico-US border. The most recent controversies link this special group to the last massacre in Reynosa: it is known that they did not immediately go to the places where the murders took place. Added to this is the “rumor” that two of the men who had been presented as the alleged perpetrators had apparently been abducted and intentionally tortured by the GOPES to plead guilty.

“Organized crime has never worked alone. This is very important to consider. We will never see criminals acting alone, like this rhetoric of good and bad that was presented during Felipe Calderón's administration: the good ones are the federal police who are with the president, and the bad ones are the ones who fight the square... Nothing like that, we are talking about organized crime groups that operate under the auspices of local, state and federal authorities,” said Guadalupe Correa.

“How are we going to believe an authority with such a deteriorated image and with a lot of problems in the judicial system? ”.

KEEP READING: