VILLA UNION, Mexico - A small town near the U.S.-Mexico border began cleaning up Monday, gripped by fear after the killing of 22 people in a ferocious weekend gunbattle between drug cartel members and security forces. Many of the vehicles were emblazoned with the cartel’s initials — CDN, for Cartel del Noreste, or Northeast Cartel — as were the attackers’ bulletproof vests. Miguel Riquelme said state security forces arrived within an hour and surrounded the town, about 35 miles (60 kilometres) southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas. Villa Union is 12 miles (20 kilometres) from the town of Allende, the site of a 2011 massacre involving the Zetas in which officials say 70 died. Villa Union residents wondered why their town was targeted with such fury.

Source: thestar December 02, 2019 15:53 UTC