El Universal reports that an alleged offshoot of Mexico’s Gulf cartel in the city of Tampico, in northeastern Tamaulipas state, called for residents to stay at home past ten pm on Thursday night, effectively imposing a curfew in the city. The paper writes that the cartel cell, known as “Los Fresitas” (“The Strawberries”), hung conspicuous banners at a main bridge into town warning of imminent battles with their rival Grupo Dragón. “We ask you all in the most attentive way to not go out in the streets after 10 pm while we finish the scum from Grupo Dragón,” the banners read.
El Diario de Coahila writes that the banners also accused the rival group of killing innocent people, extorting quotas and burning businesses in a dispute over territory, as well as of placing strawberries next to the bodies of victims in an attempt to frame Fresita members. The threats came a few days before Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto visited the state, three weeks after his government announced a new plan for public security in a place where drug-related violence has suddenly spiked.
In demonstrations timed to greet the president, residents in Tampico and Ciudad Madero called for an end to insecurity in the state, expressing impatience with a plan that had not yielded results. “The citizens of Tamaulipas have not seen results from the security strategy announced by the government for our region,” demonstrators said in a recent letter addressed to Peña Nieto. “They ask us for time and we no longer have time to give. Every day that those results are delayed, more innocent women, men and children are dying.”
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