Mexican army secures Rio Bravo

RIO BRAVO — The Mexican army cordoned off Rio Bravo early Friday, one day after a shooting outside a downtown restaurant left three hospitalized and six dead, including prominent political figure Juan Antonio Guajardo Anzalduá.

Soldiers searched vehicles leaving and entering the city, which sits in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas across the Rio Grande from Donna. Some residents of the city said the incident has frightened them, and the residents fear violence in the city could escalate.

“We are afraid. We are very scared,” one Rio Bravo woman said in Spanish, requesting anonymity out of concern for her safety. “We think that something bigger could happen.”

Gunmen opened fire about 5:30 p.m. Thursday as Guajardo and his entourage left a restaurant on Madero Avenue. Guajardo was the former mayor of Rio Bravo, a two-term representative and a one-time senator. He was seeking re-election before he died Thursday, one day before his 49th birthday.

The spray of bullets ripped through Guajardo’s group and several bystanders.

Authorities identified the deceased as Gerardo Enrique Guzman Velásquez, Carlos Hugo Moncada Gonzalez, Jesús Mata García, and federal agents Gastón Miguel Cequeda Garcia and Israel Sanchez García. The federal agents have guarded Guajardo for months, after an assassination attempt on him earlier this year.

Tight lips

Law enforcement officials revealed little about the investigation, which will be led by Assistant District Attorney No. 3 Gerardo Treviño Martinez. Treviño’s office said he spent Friday in Reynosa, overseeing the delivery of the bodies and interviewing the three injured people, who were hospitalized in Reynosa.

One of the injured victims is a federal agent, who suffered a bullet wound to his abdomen.

A bullet grazed a woman’s chest, and a third woman’s leg broke when a bullet struck her.

So far, authorities have released no motive for the shooting. Earlier in the year, the Zetas organized crime syndicate had threatened Guajardo’s life, and he had also narrowly avoided an assassination attempt, prompting the government to assign bodyguards to him.

Reynosa will mourn him

Authorities returned Guajardo’s body to his family Thursday evening.

The Valle de la Paz funeral home in Reynosa will handle the arraignments, and there will be a visitation today at the Casa de la Cultura on Madero Avenue in Rio Bravo, between streets Juarez and 16 de septiembre.

As of late Friday, the Reynosa funeral home continued to prepare the body. On Sunday, a Mass will be celebrated in Guajardo’s honor at the San Jose Catholic Church on Argentina Street in Reynosa. He will be buried in that city at the Valle de la Paz cemetery.

Rio Bravo’s current mayor, Juan De Dios Cavazos Cardenas, has offered to have Guajardo lie in state outside City Hall to honor him for his public service. Guajardo was not running against Cavazos, because in Mexico mayors must wait a term before seeking re-election.

As of press deadline, it was unclear if Guajardo’s widow, Sofia de Guajardo, had accepted Cavazos’ offer.

“We feel overwhelmed,” Cavazos Cardenas said in Spanish during a brief interview at Rio Bravo City Hall.