Violence in Reynosa- Please pray!

This article was published in the Houston Chronicle today! The girls at Casa MAMi will not be able to attend school until the violence subsides. Elma says that they do have enough food and supplies for the time being.

Gunfights leave 10 dead in Reynosa
Reports say 20 injured and that five who died were soldiers
By DUDLEY ALTHAUS Houston Chronicle Mexico City Bureau
Feb. 17, 2009, 5:10PM

MEXICO CITY — Running gun battles between army troops and suspected gangsters killed as many as 10 people today in the border city of Reynosa.

Another 20 people were reported injured in the firefights, which involved automatic weapons and grenades, according to local press reports. El Universal newspaper in Mexico City reported that at least five soldiers were killed

There were no immediate official figures on the number of dead and wounded.

An industrial hub that's home to many U.S.-owned factories, Reynosa is considered the territory of the Gulf Cartel drug-smuggling organization and its assassins, the Zetas. The city borders far South Texas, across the Rio Grande from McAllen.

The battles came just a week after a clash between troops and gangsters killed 21 people in Chihuahua state, bordering West Texas. The dead in the Feb. 10 battles included one soldier, 14 presumed gunmen and six hostages that the gangsters had kidnapped in the town of Villa Ahumada, about 40 miles south of the border. Three more alleged gangsters were killed by the army in Villa Ahumada late last week.

Tuesday's battles came as anti-army demonstrators marched in the city of Monterrey and closed international bridges in Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Matamoros and Ciudad Juarez. All the cities, except Juarez, are considered the territory of the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.

Mexican officials have dismissed the protests, which include women and children, as paid for by the gangsters.

"There are reasons to believe this deals with the Gul Cartel and the Zetas," Natividad Gonzalez, governor of Nuevo Leon state, which includes Monterrey, told reporters Tuesday. "We are facing a clear challenge by organized crime groups against society and the government."

Last Novemember, army troops captured an alleged senior Zeta boss last fall in Reynosa on the same day police seized what officials described as the largest arms cache ever captured from the gangsters. Gunmen later attacked the army troops who had taken the Zeta leader, Jaime Gonzalez, alias "the Hummer" to the Reynosa airport for transport to Mexico City.

President Felipe Calderon ordered neary 30,000 troops into battle against the country's powerful drug smuggling gangs upon taking office in December 2006. Nearly 10,000 people have been killed in gangland violence since then, most of them either presumed gangsters or members of Mexico's security forces.

Calderon has vowed to continue the fight, claiming that the increased violence is an indication that the government is winning.

In addition to gangland violence, northern Mexico has suffered a wave of job losses in the maquiladoras, the largely foreign-owned factories that produce auto parts, electronics and home appliances for the U.S. market. The peso has been plunging — reaching nearly 15 to the dollar Tuesday — lowering the buying power for the average border family.

Many Mexican border residents have also been unnerved by the presence of machine-gun toting soldiers patrolling their streets as part of the Calderon administration's attempt to control drug cartel power.