A letter to President Calderon from Reynosa

LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE REBUBLIC AND THE MEDIA

I raise my voice and shout from the rooftops so that you will know we are going through the worst days of our lives. I can not believe what my eyes see, what my ears hear, what my mouth says.


I can not believe what my hands no longer do, the hatred, resentment and helplessness that is filling my mind. Especially the impotence I feel unable to do anything in the face of the fear us Reynosenses (citizens of Reynosa, Tamaulipas) live with daily, as we watch the city's economy in tatters, the youth hidden indoors avoiding any life outside of the home, the empty streets after nine at night, restaurants and bars closed, all thanks to the wave of insecurity in which we live.

I invite you and your family, Sr. Presidente, to spend a few days in Reynosa, to stay at a home in any neighborhood that you choose: the colonias San Valentin, Puerta del Sol, Vista Hermosa, Las Fuentes, López Portillo, Centro, Altamira or any other so that during the dawn you can listen for more than forty minutes as soldiers and gunmen fight for their lives: the gunfire, bazooka and grenade explosions.

I invite you, Sir, to stroll through the city, for your eyes to witness what happens at traffic lights: criminals at gunpoint carjack, kidnap, rob and assault the people in their vehicles, take our women ........as the surrounding cars flee, unable to help, the people gripped by fear.

I invite your wife, Sra. Margarita, to attend our next children's party and listen to the “pleasant” chats of ten frightened mothers participating in each table. The central issue is the lack of security, how so & so’s aunt was taken down from her car and beaten at noon in the parking lot of a supermarket, or the unending gunfire and eternal minutes spent listening to the latest shootout, or how you ran to pick up your children after receiving the news that banners are hanging from the bridges saying that "5 children from different schools in the city will be taken hostage", or describing the daily extortion calls you receive by telephone from the person who kidnapped your neighbor.

I invite your children, Sr. Presidente, to experience a shooting like the one at the school located on Blvd. Del Maestro. I get a lump in my throat and feelings of anger and powerlessness when I think of the anguish the children endured.

I heard from my 6 year old daughter of how the teacher locked the classroom door and covered its window with paper, how the children crawled on their stomachs quickly and quietly to hide in the classroom closet, how they sat all squashed and covering their eyes with their hands. My daughter said, "we were was forbidden to push, make noise or uncover our eyes, two of my classmates got very nervous and cried a lot, my teacher hugged them and put them under the desk."

I invite you, Sr. Presidente, to any house and see how for the past year children, ages 5, 6, 7 and 8, run every morning to sleep in the bed with their parents, saying "Mom, Dad, are those bullets I hear?"... I find it unfair that our children do not have pleasant dreams, live in fear and never talk about games.

I invite you, Sr. Presidente Calderon and your wife, to accompany my wife and I as we run from the parking lot to our workplace at 9:00 in the morning because there are soldiers and criminals exchanging gunfire less than 50 meters away.

I invite you, Sr. Presidente, to my city to see how our sister cities are isolated by the violence, how people risk being robbed, kidnapped, raped, shot, killed if they travel from one city to another.

Business people, investors, are leaving Mexico for the United States and Spain, when they are urgently needed to revive the economy.

Our youngsters are becoming addicted, they are bombarded by the dollars of drug traffickers who prey on the ignorance and needs of the people, who take advantage of poverty and the hatred that young people have against a government that does nothing for them.

Sr. Presidente, while you and your cabinet go on tour to other countries, exchanging flags, and during your U.S. visit and meetings and gala dinners with President Barack Obama, Reynosa was on fire and still is.

I raise my voice and shout from the rooftops, for this to end! I raise my voice and shout from the rooftops, and ask for peace!

I raise my voice and shout from the rooftops to ask all the sister cities Reynosa and Rio Bravo, Valle Hermoso, Diaz Ordaz, Camargo, MigueI Aleman, etc etc, that we not shut up, that we raise our voices together until you hear us.

Presidente Felipe Calderon, this time I speak myself, my feelings, my frustration, my impotence, my rage, but I'm sure thousands of Reynosenses feel and live what I do. Please listen to the voice of the people of MEXICO, hear my petition and those of many Mexicans.

And I am writing to you because for our governor and mayor, for them what we hear and see are pure fairytales, they say nothing happens in Tamaulipas, everything is very quiet.

Rodolfo Torre Cantu’s murder and that of other candidates and mayors in cities across the state are the true face of what is now happening in Tamaulipas.

Egidio Torre Cantu, our governor, has lost control of our state and our mayor, Everardo Villarreal, has lost control of our city, Reynosa.

With all due respect because you're the federal executive, please put a stop to the war of words between different political parties, something has to be done in Tamaulipas and other states of the republic.

It is obvious that politicians, government officials and employees of municipal, state and federal police agencies are linked to organized crime and we're angry and shocked of what they do…

I appreciate that you take the time to read it, and I hope to be lucky to talk with you.

God bless you and your family.

Sincerely .-


ALL CITIZENS OF TAMAULIPAS, RAISE YOUR VOICE AND PASS THE LETTER TO MEXICO, AND THE WORLD, FOR ALL TO HEAR!!

S. O. S.