Gunfights on Monday shook a Mexican border city plagued by drug cartel-related violence, forcing the suspension of flights at the local airport, authorities said.
The violence in Nuevo Laredo, just south of Texas, followed the arrest of an alleged local cartel leader, Ricardo Gonzalez, alias “El Ricky.”
The U.S. consulate in Nuevo Laredo issued a security alert saying that it had “received reports of multiple gunfights throughout the city.” U.S. government personnel were advised to shelter in place, it added.
Hours later, the consulate said it would be closing on Tuesday “due to an emergency situation in the city.”
Nuevo Laredo airport canceled flights and was expected to reschedule them for Tuesday, Mayor Carmen Lilia Canturosas said on social media.
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Earlier, local authorities asked residents not to leave their homes.
The incident comes about a week after the U.S. consulate in Mexico issued warnings about gun battles, kidnappings and IED’s in Mexican border regions.
“IEDs are being increasingly manufactured and used by criminal organizations in this region,” the consulate said, noting that an IED destroyed a Mexican government vehicle in Rio Bravo and injured its occupant on January 23. Â
Separately, the U.S. State Department last week issued a travel warning for Tamaulipas state, which borders Nuevo Laredo.
“Organized crime activity – including gun battles, murder, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, forced disappearances, extortion, and sexual assault – is common along the northern border,” the travel warning said.
Gunfights are common in Nuevo Laredo, one of the Mexican cities most affected by drug-related violence. In October, human rights activists and relatives blamed the army and National Guard troops in the deaths of a nurse and an 8-year-old girl in Nuevo Laredo.
On Monday, President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would deploy 10,000 troops to the Mexican-U.S. border in the face of mounting pressure from Washington to halt drug trafficking.