Residents in a Mexican border city have experienced a new wave of terror after Gulf Cartel gunmen began openly attacking innocent bystanders over the weekend. The motive for the attacks on innocent civilians remains unknown.
The attacks took place in the border city of Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, just south of Donna, Texas, when, on Sunday morning, a group of gunmen drove past a bus stop in the Conalep neighborhood and shot two women who were waiting for public transport. The women were identified as 40-year-old Ascencion Martinez Gutierrez and 22-year-old Griselda Bautista. Medical personnel rushed both women to a local hospital, where they were listed in critical condition. The gunmen fled the scene with complete impunity.
About four hours later, another group of gunmen spotted a local businessman, identified as 40-year-old Juan Antonio Lozano Gutierrez, who was driving to check on a house he had for sale. For no apparent reason, the gunmen shot at his vehicle multiple times. By the time emergency personnel arrived, Lozano had died from his injuries.
Breitbart Texas consulted with law enforcement sources in Tamaulipas, who revealed that both attacks were not provoked and appear to have been random attacks by gunmen in a possible attempt to spread fear among locals and rivals.
The area where the attacks took place is on the western side of Rio Bravo, along a highway that connects that city with Reynosa, Tamaulipas. The Gulf Cartel faction Los Escopriones, which controls Rio Bravo, has staged gunmen in that neighborhood to keep out gunmen from a rival faction. It remains unclear from which faction of the Gulf Cartel were the gunmen who shot the innocent victims.
As Breitbart Texas has reported, since early last year, gunmen from the Metros faction based in Reynosa have been fighting with gunmen from Los Escorpiones over control of lucrative drug and human trafficking routes into Texas.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at
