In the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, a high-ranking government official narrowly escaped an attack on Monday.
Hector Villegas, the Interior Minister of the border state, was traveling by car when he came under fire on the Reynosa-San Fernando highway border state, according to state authorities
Fortunately, Villegas remained unharmed, and he has since returned to his regular duties, as confirmed in a tweet by the border state’s security spokesperson. Images circulating on social media showed bullet holes in the minister of the border state’s vehicle, leading local media to describe the incident as an attempted assassination.
In response to the ongoing violence plaguing Tamaulipas, the Mexican army has deployed a contingent of one hundred soldiers to the municipalities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, and San Fernando, according to an official statement from the Defense Ministry (SEDENA). This deployment aims to bolster security operations in the border state and combat the activities of criminal groups, ultimately ensuring the safety of the local population.
Tamaulipas, like several other regions in Mexico, has long been synonymous with gang violence
In a similar incident last year, the mayor of a small town in Tamaulipas was kidnapped in Nuevo Laredo but later released. In a separate incident in October, gunmen associated with a drug gang in the southern state of Guerrero killed a town mayor and 19 others, as reported by border state officials.
According to Etellekt Consultores, a Mexican consulting firm, between September 2020 and the June 2021 legislative elections, at least 88 Mexican politicians of the border state or candidates of the border state for office lost their lives in targeted attacks.
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