Authorities identify suspects in Nuevo Progreso shooting

NUEVO PROGRESO — Authorities identified three men suspected of participating in a deadly weekend shooting along this community’s bustling main strip.

The Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office said in a news release issued Tuesday evening that two victims — a soldier and a civilian — were killed during the attack Saturday afternoon. The pair was not identified, and after-hours calls to the attorney general’s office were unanswered.

No U.S. casualties have been reported in connection with the violence, which erupted at the end of a city-organized celebration to welcome Winter Texans back to this popular tourist destination.

José Luis Villarreal Rodríguez, Juan González Ávalos and Santos de la Rosa Cano were arrested in Rio Bravo between the Retamal and Santo Domingo ejidos (parcels of land subject to communal use), according to the attorney general’s statement. The men were traveling in a 2005 Ford Explorer with Alabama license plates. Authorities said they found weapons and drugs inside the bullet-riddled vehicle.

The trio was spotted after police noticed a Dodge Ram truck that was on fire and blocking a road near the Explorer after the shooting. The group remains incarcerated in Reynosa pending a court appearance. Each man faces charges of racketeering and illegal possession of a firearm.

The Mexican military, which responded to the attack with soldiers and armored vehicles, has remained tight-lipped about the incident, only telling Monitor reporters that further details would be provided via online bulletin. The country’s Defense Ministry, which usually issues notices within days of such incidents, had posted no bulletin about the Nuevo Progreso shooting on its Web site as of late Tuesday.

U.S. law enforcement officials guarded their side of the Progreso International Bridge after the shooting and halted southbound traffic at the border crossing, which links Progreso and Nuevo Progreso.

Mexican military personnel barricaded the site of the shooting for hours, even denying access to local police officers.

The gunfire broke out near the intersection of Juárez and California streets, several blocks from the international bridge, along the city’s main strip.

A “Welcome Back Winter Texans Fiesta” had just wrapped up in Nuevo Progreso that afternoon when the shots rang out. Snowbirds scrambled for cover, many finding refuge in local businesses as they waited out the shooting. Many rushed to the U.S. side of the bridge when the violence subsided, some nervously gazing across the border while others downplayed the attack.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón launched a sweeping crackdown on his country’s entrenched drug cartels in December 2006, dispatching thousands of soldiers to Mexico’s northern frontier. Some 14,000 people have been killed since the initiative began.

Saturday’s incident was unusual in this community, which has largely maintained a reputation as a safe haven amid more rough-and-tumble border towns like Ciudad Juárez, where drug violence has been notably more prevalent.

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Ana Ley covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4428.