Hidalgo, Texas — One of the last signs visitors see on the American side of the border road leading to Reynosa warns against carrying guns into Mexico. Ironically, heavily-armed drug cartels have de facto control over the city.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
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Reynosa, Mexico — A gate post and the doors of a house bear the marks of a shootout in February between Mexican federal police and Gulf cartel member, six of whom were killed. It was one of dozens of gun battles this year that have left citizens of Reynosa living under siege while the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas battle for smuggling routes into the U.S.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
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Reynosa, Mexico — Young men sit near the grave stone of a 22-year-old slain in drug-related violence.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
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Reynosa, Mexico — People walk hand in hand through the central plaza, as police watch over from a portable lookout tower equipped with security cameras. Residents venture out with great caution, especially avoiding going out alone at night.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
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Reynosa, Mexico — Police patrol the pedestrian shopping district in the Old City, where corrupt policemen, vendors, cab drivers and merchants spy on visitors and report suspicious activities to drug cartel thugs.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
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Reynosa, Mexico — A vendor hawks a newspaper with a front page headline "Businessman Assassinated." After killings, kidnappings and beatings, journalists have learned to self-censor what they report of the daily violence. Gun battles and grenade attacks are rarely, if ever, covered anymore.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
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Reynosa, Mexico — Juan Carlos Rangel, 30, works as a "Dragon" or flame-spitter on a street corner. A taxi cab waits at the nearby traffic light, its license plates removed. It's one of hundreds of plate-less taxis on the drug cartels' payroll, ordered to spy on visitors and monitor movements of the military and officials.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
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Reynosa, Mexico — A journalist inadvertently finds himself following a taxi cab that has no license plate, indicating he is one of hundreds spies on the drug cartel payroll. Here in the northern state of Tamaulipas, journalists fear for their lives and practice a profound form of self-censorship, imposed by the narcos.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
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Reynosa, Mexico — On the highway that follows the Rio Grande River outside Reynosa, uniformed Mexican police man a makeshift checkpoint. One commuter said that she and her husband have been stopped twice in recent months by drug cartel men in uniforms at unofficial roadblocks. "To drive the highway is to tempt death" she said.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
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Reynosa, Mexico — A heavily armed Mexican soldier keeps an eye on a key intersection that leads directly to the border outside Reynosa. Drug traffickers need free use of the road to smuggle narcotics across the Rio Grande River and into Texas.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
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Reynosa, Mexico — A man casts a fishing net into the Rio Grande River at the Diaz Ordaz border crossing to southeast Texas. The ferry between Mexico and the U.S. is closed for repairs. This area is a highly prized drug smuggling route being fought over by the Gulf and Zeta cartels.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
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Reynosa, Mexico — A shoeshine vendor works in the almost deserted central plaza. Citizens say they now watch what they say to anyone, not knowing who might be spying for drug cartels. Even the mayor doesn't live here anymore, having sheltered his family in Texas.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
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Reynosa, Mexico — Guitarist Armengol Martinez plays to an empty street in the deserted tourist zone. Most clubs, cantinas, curios shops, brothels and massage parlors have gone out of business. Texas visitors who once filled the cobblestone streets are staying away from the specter of a shootout that might come at any time. Martinez said even Reynosa's citizens are going to the U.S. side for a safe night out.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
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