AT least 14 people died in the Mexican border city of Reynosa on Saturday after a convoy of shooters went on a rampage, authorities said, a somber reminder of the violence that has ravaged the U.S. neighbor for more than a decade. A spokesman for Tamaulipas state’s secretary of public security said Sunday that the attackers may be members of a splinter faction of the Gulf Cartel, which has a presence in large swaths of the Mexican state that borders Texas. The attacks may have derived from a dispute between rival groups over territorial control of the area and dominance over illicit operations including drug trafficking and human trafficking, Luis Alberto Rodriguez, the spokesman, told The Washington Post on Sunday. Four suspects also died, he said. The State Coordinating Group for Peace Building in Tamaulipas, an agency coordinating security forces and law enforcement, said the attacks began early in the afternoon, when shooters in vehicles attacked several neighborhoods in Reynosa near the U.S. border. In a joint operation, the Mexican army and state police fanned out across the city to find the attackers, according to a statement from the agency. State police found suspects who resisted arrest and shot at them, the statement said, before officers fired back and killed two men and one woman. State authorities said Sunday that they are investigating possible motives behind the killings and looking for other shooters. Violent criminal groups are eroding Mexico’s authority and claiming more territory The coordinating agency released no details about the 14 people killed by attackers, but local media reports said one family could have been killed. (SD-Agencies) |