Reynosa on edge after rumors spread of a massive shootout

REYNOSA — Oscar Castro flicked a lighter and lit the polish on his customer’s shoe.

Business was slow Thursday as raindrops puddled in the streets amid a flood of rumors that spread fear among many residents in Reynosa.

E-mails and online posts began spreading the day before that Thursday or Sunday would bring “the biggest shootout in Reynosa’s history.”

Rumors and confusion fueled panic across both sides of the border and some Reynosa businesses shuttered as a precaution. Many schools sent students home early.

“We are very scared and don’t feel that safe anymore,” Castro said in Spanish.

Mexican authorities in Reynosa said the fears were unfounded, saying the cartels do not warn the public before they attack.

“Here, everything is calm,” said Everardo Sanchez, a spokesman with the Mexican attorney general’s office. “It’s all lies. It’s all psychological.”

Still, as Mexican media has not reported on drug violence in recent months — the country remains one of the deadliest in the world for reporters — Reynosa residents said they have trouble feeling safe in their city.

“Nothing is ever published in the newspaper,” Castro said.

Other witnesses reported parents picking up their children early from school across the city.

Officials with Reynosa’s education department said Francisco J. Mugica middle school and Ignacio Ramirez elementary school were closed for the day. Other schools across the city were noticeably absent of children — or anyone — Thursday afternoon.

Ana Edith Simon Saldaña, an 18-year-old university student, said her classes were canceled Thursday and had ended early all week amid similar fears of attacks.

“They go to all of the neighborhoods and you don’t know where they are going to go,” Simon said in Spanish of the cartel attacks. “I don’t know. We’re all just scared of everything.”

Simon said her classes are set to resume as normal today, but does not know whether they will end early again.

Some Reynosa residents urged friends and family north of the Rio Grande to avoid the area.

“My son is in Reynosa working and he asked me not to go,” Eva Luna said from her McAllen home. “It’s bad over there.”

Partial reports of violence left authorities in Hidalgo County on alert.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said early Thursday afternoon he received word from an “official intelligence source” in the U.S. that the Mexican army had a middle school surrounded and that they believed as many as four vehicles carrying Sinaloa cartel members had entered Reynosa.

Coincidentally, Mexican authorities extradited Sinaloa cartel kingpin Vicente Zambada Niebla to U.S. authorities in Brownsville on Thursday, the Mexican attorney general’s office announced.

Zambada, also known as “El Mayito,” was arrested March 19 in Mexico City. He was wanted by in the United States on several conspiracy charges after he allegedly smuggled large quantities of cocaine and heroin into the United States.

Zambada’s father, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, is also considered a top leader of the Sinaloa cartel. The elder Zambada controls the Sinaloa cartel alongside Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman — Mexico’s most wanted drug lord.

More than 15,000 people have died in a drug war that began when President Felipe Calderón launched a crackdown on the cartels in 2006.

Treviño said his source did not indicate the Sinaloa cartel members’ suspected arrival in Reynosa coincided with Zambada’s extradition. The sheriff said he has three SWAT teams and his “contingency plan” ready, should U.S. Customs and Border Protection or other agencies request their assistance.

Hidalgo Police Chief Vernon Rosser said his department added extra enforcement at the bridge in case of spillover violence.

The chief said law enforcement officials on the U.S. side of the border were frustrated because they did not receive word from Mexican authorities about whether the rumors were true.

“We can’t confirm anything out of Mexico,” Rosser said. “The authorities over there on the Mexican government, they’ve kind of got the lid on it.”

The sheriff reckoned e-mails or other rumors of violence may have been started by the cartels. But even if they were not, foreshadowing further attacks among a wary population is “the worst form of intimidation you can imagine,” he said.

“You don’t have to have crime to have fear of crime,” Treviño said. “That is very disheartening, but you can’t do anything about it.”

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Monitor staff writer Martha Leticía Hernandez contributed to this report.

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Jared Taylor and Ana Ley cover law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach Taylor at (956) 683-4439. Ley can be reached at (956) 683-4428.