I woke up this morning and heard the U.S. Consulate just closed all their offices in Reynosa, Mexico due to the sudden upswing in violence.

Consulate Closing

“The U.S. Consulate has restricted travel of American officials to Reynosa and closed its office there until further notice…[The Consulate] advises U.S. citizens to take the above information into consideration when making any decisions concerning traveling to or within Reynosa.”

“According to local reports, gunmen in as many as 20 vehicles clashed with members of the Mexican military and municipal police in Ciudad Mier, just west of Reynosa, during a daytime gun battle Tuesday that reportedly resulted in the kidnapping of 10 municipal police officers. Video from the scene showed abandoned police sport utility vehicles with bullet holes and broken windows. Shattered glass covered the street in the backdrop of palm trees. A damaged red truck with the insignia C.D.G. — the Spanish acronym for the Gulf Cartel — was shown being towed from the shooting scene.”

It’s front page news here in the valley and on every TV station, but CNN has the story buried in the “other news” links. So far, based on what I’ve seen on the ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX news channels this morning, a killer whale at Sea World is more important than what is quickly coming to a boiling point down here.

Here’s the CNN link on the consulate closing.