Three students killed in encounter with Mexican military
REYNOSA — Three teenage students died Wednesday after coming under Mexican military fire on this city’s northeast side, federal officials said.
The incident occurred just before 1:30 p.m. as the teens fled from soldiers in a white Dodge Ram pickup truck, south of the city’s main Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, refinery.
Few details as to what led up to the shooting had been released as of Thursday afternoon, but Mexico’s attorney general’s office said it continues to investigate what might have provoked the attack.
Soldiers with the 8th Military Zone, which includes Reynosa and the surrounding area, did not return calls for comment.
El Universal, a Mexico City-based newspaper, identified the three victims as Daniel Hernandez, 13, Cesar Alejandro Cuellar, 15, and Eduardo Cuellar, 17 — all residents of the Anzalduas neighborhood north of the refinery.
Other newspaper reports said the teens were wearing school uniforms at the time of their deaths.
The reported attacks are the latest in a situation of heightened violence between Mexican drug cartels and military troops along the border.
On May 28, four suspected drug cartel members died during a clash with Mexican army soldiers, according to national news agency Notimex.
Soldiers were patrolling Boulevard Álvaro Obregón and Calle Armado Nervo Cavazos when they were attacked by suspected cartel members. The army returned fire and killed four of the gunmen. Four rifles, boots ammunition and three vehicles were seized after the street battle.
That same day, the Mexican defense ministry said three suspected drug cartel members were killed in a shootout with army soldiers near Nuevo Guerrero, Tamps. The defense ministry said soldiers were attacked by the suspected cartel members on the road to Paras, N.L. The defense ministry did not say whether any soldiers were wounded or killed in the attack; several weapons and rounds of ammunition were seized.
Official information of the attacks did not spread until they were reported by federal authorities. On Thursday, Mexican news agency Reforma reported that the Tamaulipas state government’s official website for sharing “timely information” about street battles and homicides was discontinued. State officials provided no reason or comment about the website’s disappearance.
Cities across the border from South Texas have experienced a surge in homicides since February, when the Zetas — a Miguel Alemán-based drug smuggling gang — broke its ties with the Gulf Cartel, the other dominant smuggling operation in the region. Since then, open street fights between cartel gunmen and the Mexican military have killed dozens of suspected cartel members, innocent civilians and soldiers.
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Monitor staff writer Jared Taylor contributed to this report.
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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 587-9377.
