Brownsville on alert following shootings at Matamoros

By Lynn Brezosky

9/15/2010

BROWNSVILLE — International bridge officials halted middle-of-the-night traffic earlier this week and police at the University of Texas-Brownsville went knocking on dorms to warn students as drug gang violence coinciding with Mexico's bicentennial independence celebration broke out just across the Rio Grande.

Eduardo Perez, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Brownsville, said officials stopped Brownsville-Matamoros bridge traffic for about 25 minutes shortly after midnight Monday as a precautionary measure at the request of the Mexican government. While he did not immediately recall the agency, he said it was probably the Mexicanaduana, or Customs agency.

The shootouts reportedly occurred just across the border in Matamoros Monday night and early Tuesday as Mexican military took a strike against warring Gulf Cartel and Zeta operatives.

As of Wednesday morning, the Mexican government had not released an official tally of deaths and injuries. At least one Mexican newspaper was reporting two deaths.

Despite the stoppage of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, Perez said the bridges were never “closed,â€