Entire Town Displaced, Marshall Serzen

            The Mexican war with the Cartels has taken a new turn this weekend with over 100 families being displaced because of the violence. With this war approaching its 5^th year, this displacement of 100 plus families, totaling around 300 people, is the largest of the war.

            All of the 100 families were located in Ciudad Mier, located along the border, and relocated to Miguel Aleman.

            Recently the leader of the Gulf Cartel, “Tony the Gun” was killed in a near by town and violence has only increased since. The rival cartel, the Zetas, drove through the town of Ciudad Mier shouting that they would kill every resident who remained in the town.

            Miguel Aleman, which is only a few miles away opened up one shelter for the refugees, and is planning on opening up another one due to the huge number of people.

They government has denied knowing anything about what is going on in Ciudad Mier and said that they also denied know that the Zetas had control of the town. They did admit to knowing about the shelters though. They also said that the threats were false and this was the first time they had heard them.

It is not known yet how long the shelters will have to stay open but the displaced families are being given necessary supplies. They is even going to be some temporary employment for the families so they can still try to earn a living.

Battle on the Border, Marshall Serzen

Police and cartels battled in the city of Matamoros, Alejandro Poire in Mexico over the weekend killing a top cartel leader as well as four suspected gang members and two Mexican Navy soldiers.

Top cartel leader Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, aka "Tony the Storm", was killed during the battle. Navy soldiers were sent to investigate the house were attacked with grenades and multiple assault weapons. The Mexican government has had some moderate success with either capturing or killing top cartel leaders in the last few months. Sergio Villarreal, leader of the Beltran Leyva cartel and "La Barbie,” Edgar Valdez have been captured.

Located in Tamaulipas, where the bloody battle happened, is where most of the violence has taken place. The Gulf Cartel is one of the largest criminal and smuggling organizations in Mexico and is based south of Brownsville, Texas. The Gulf Cartel and the Zetas have been battling over smuggling operations and control over the area. The Zetas used to be part of the Gulf Cartel until they split off earlier this year.

Also in Brownsville, Texas two college campuses were shut down after suspected gunfire was coming across the Rio Grande and being directed towards the campuses. University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College were the two colleges where classes were canceled and students and faculty were sent home. The university security guard on duty said that it sounded like they were in the middle of the battle.

Mexico's Police, Marshall Serzen

Being a police officer is Mexico is not looked at as a positive thing. Over 61 percent of the state police force makes less than 325 dollars a month. You immediately have a bulls-eye on your head from the drug cartels. And you have a negative stigma in society. They work an extremely dangerous job, make very little money and are not appreciated in society so why do it. That is what the police force of Los Ramores asked themselves as they all resigned on October 28th after their station was attacked by the local cartels.

On October 28^th several armed gunmen drove up and attacked the new station shooting it over 1500 times while throwing grenades. While none of the police were hurt, six police vehicles were destroyed and one k-9 unit was killed by the gunfire and grenade blasts. Reacting out of fear for their lives all 14 police officers quit and even fled the town. This all happened just three days after the inauguration ceremony of the new station. The government has sent the local military to police the town until a new force is trained and hired. However there is speculation that finding a new force will be extremely difficult.

This area of Mexico was considered to be one of the more peaceful areas until recent attacks like this started happening on local police and several mayors have been killed. This happened among three separate massacres that have happened in the past two weeks.