Grenade attack diverts weekend bridge traffic to Brownsville

BROWNSVILLE -- Grenade attacks on the Mexican Navy headquarters in Matamoros on Sunday forced officials to divert northbound traffic away from the Gateway International Bridge for nearly an hour.

Two loud explosives went off near 7:30 p.m. at the military building, which sits about six blocks away from the port of entry. The blasts resonated for miles along both sides of the Rio Grande, alarming people waiting in lines at the international bridge to cross into the United States.

Armed U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers immediately began walking through the bridge, questioning people waiting in vehicles or walking through the overpass.

Mexican authorities diverted traffic from the port of entry to the B&M International Bridge and the Veterans International Bridge for almost an hour, CBP spokesman Eduardo Perez said. Traffic was back to normal at by about 8:00 p.m.

“We are always looking at protecting our facilities, our traveling public and our officers,” he said Monday. “We are in constant communication with our officers in Mexico and are available to them.”

Sporadic shootouts broke-out throughout Sunday across Matamoros, including a drive-by shooting early that day outside of the local office of the Mexican Attorney General.

That building has been the scene of at least two other bomb attacks this month, as the Gulf Cartel fights the Zetas, its former armed wing.

Escalating levels of violence have wracked Mexico since President Felipe Calderón launched a major offensive against drug cartels when he took office in 2006. The majority of the fighting is now taking place in Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas states, as three of Mexico’s drug cartels — the Gulf Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Michoacana—fight against the Zetas.

More than 28,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since Calderón took office. Deaths this year are at 7,500, with 2,053 deaths in the state of Chihuahua and 421 in Tamaulipas, according to Agencia Reforma, a Mexican news agency.

In this latest attack, Mexican officials said no one had been injured or killed but declined to comment further.