Thousands mount protest in streets of Reynosa
REYNOSA — Thousands of Reynosa residents picketed and blocked off streets here Saturday to protest the military presence in their city and the rising fees and taxes to import used vehicles from the United States.
From 10:30 a.m. to 1:40 p.m., taxi drivers, shop owners, and car lot owners gathered along the streets Reynosa-Monterrey, Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Victoria and Matamoros and both of the city's international bridges, said Israel Marin Teran, a transit officer who witnessed the protest.
"One doesn't know what to do when this sort of thing happens," Marin said. "We didn't get authorization to break it up, so we had to wait for the crowds to die down."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials shut down both bridges during the protest as a precaution.
Used auto sales reps urged the Mexican government to scale back the increase in import fees and taxes, while taxi drivers complained about abusive military personnel in the city, according to the daily newspaper El Universal.
No injuries were reported during the protest.
Military personnel said the demonstration confused them, and one supervisor who asked not to be identified said, "It is all peace and love" between residents and soldiers, as far as the military was concerned.
Just blocks away from one protest site near the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge, the city's tourism department was hosting its annual Winter Texan Celebration, an event city leaders use to entice snowbirds to visit the city.
"We expected more visitors to come this year, but unfortunately I think the situation drove some away," said Jose Robinson, the city's director of tourism and commerce. "We never expected something like this to happen today."
Taxi drivers parked near the border crossing refused to explain why or how the protest began, but they were quick to point out that the crowd was complaining about what they referred to as an "unreasonable" cost for vehicle importation.
"We have to pay too much," one taxi driver said, refusing to identify himself. "That's why everyone was upset."
The taxi drivers explained that the government's newest decree raised the cost of registering a used U.S. vehicle by 300 percent.
According to El Universal, protesters held up signs that read: "Stop, don't shoot, we're good people," "We're here before the power of the national military," "No more abuses from the military against Reynosa families" and "Get out, soldiers of Reynosa."
The newspaper reported that several protesters threatened officials with a more radical display next week if they didn't address their complaints.
Mexican President Felipe Calderón dispatched thousands of troops to Tamaulipas' northern border at the start of last year as part of a nationwide campaign to weed out entrenched drug trafficking organizations.
Despite initial flare-ups in cities such as Reynosa and Rio Bravo - where narco-traffickers battled federal agents in the streets in January 2008 - the state's border cities have not experience the systemic violence that has besieged cities farther west such as Ciudád Juarez, across the border from El Paso.
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Ana Ley covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4428.
