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July 31, 2013
The 'Second Massacre of San Fernando' (2011)
I tell people that I drove alone through Central America on a motorcycle this summer, and most people are pretty shocked, as you can imagine.
The state department advisories on Tamaulipas are not encouraging. This is one of the reasons, apparently. I knew there was a lot of drug-related crime down there, but I'd never heard the story of the Second Massacre of San Fernando until today:
"Reports mentioned that female kidnapping victims were raped and able-bodied male kidnapping victims were forced to fight to the death with other hostages, similar to a "gladiator fight from ancient Rome," where they were given knives, hammers, machetes, and clubs to find recruits who were willing to kill for their lives.[6] In the blood sport, the survivor was recruited as a new hitman for Los Zetas; those who did not survive were buried in a clandestine gravesite.[7] After the massacre, thousands of citizens from San Fernando fled to other parts of Mexico and to the United States.[8]"
Then, of course, I had to go back and check my maps to see if I'd gone through San Fernando or not. Sure enough...I went through there. But, keep in mind that I didn't stop. Once I got out of Matamoros (where I was hopelessly lost multiple times and driving along open sewage canals), I pretty much drove wide open, stopping only for military checkpoints until I got to Tampico, Mexico.
Here's the map of my ride through San Fernando and the Mexican state of Tamaulipas:
Posted by Rob Kiser on July 31, 2013 at 4:41 PM
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