MATAMOROS, Mexico, March 10 (UPI) -- Four suspects have been arrested in connection to a shooting attack on the convoy of the mayor of the Mexican border city of Matamoros, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, Sunday night.
The shooting was a case of mistaken identities and not an assassination attempt, according to Herminio Garza Palacios, general secretary of government -- a position akin to lieutenant governor -- of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.
The suspects were traveling in two vehicles without license plates.
"The detainees said to have participated in the attack on the convoy of the mayor, indicating that it was a confusion because they assumed that the bodyguards were members of an opposite criminal group," he said, dismissing assassination attempt claims.
Mayor of Matamoros Leticia Salazar and her bodyguards were not injured.
Salazar is one of few Mexican mayors in the state of Tamaulipas, which borders the United States, to speak out against the ongoing violence brought on by warring factions of the Gulf Cartel.
The National Action Party, which Salazar belongs to, has called for a full investigation into the attack.
"It is urgent to solve the serious problem of insecurity in towns like Matamoros, where not only civil servants are prey to violence, but the citizenry has for years been affected," President of the National Action Party Gustavo Madero said. "This is a problem that concerns the state government and the federal."
The Mexican state of Tamaulipas has long hosted drug violence, including shootouts in public places.
