San Fernando is a city located in the Mexican

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas, is a state in Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 43 municipalities. It is located in nor ...

; it serves as the seat of the surrounding

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of the same name. It is about away from

Brownsville, Texas Brownsville ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Cameron County, Texas, Cameron County, located on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border, border with Matamoros, Tamaulipas ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The municipality has a population of 57,220, while the city itself has a population of 29,665.

History

Massacres

San Fernando, Tamaulipas, is notorious for experiencing two of the largest recorded

massacres A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians en masse by an armed group or person. The word is a loan of a French term for "b ...

of the

Mexican drug war The Mexican drug war is an List of ongoing armed conflicts, ongoing Asymmetric warfare, asymmetric armed conflict between the Federal government of Mexico, Mexican government and various Drug cartel#Mexico, drug trafficking syndicates. When the ...

. The first

massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...

, known as the 2010 San Fernando massacre, occurred following a gunfight in Tamaulipas between drug cartel gunmen and Mexican authorities, in which three gunmen and a marine were killed. After the authorities patrolled the nearby area, they discovered 72 bodies in a remote ranch in Tamaulipas. The bodies were found in a room, some of which were piled up on top of each other. It was "the biggest single discovery of its kind" in the ongoing drug war. The 58 men and 14 women were believed to be undocumented migrants from South and Central America trying to cross the border to the

. A surviving migrant claims that the migrants were kidnapped by the

Los Zetas Los Zetas (, Spanish for "The Zs") is a Mexican criminal syndicate and designated terrorist organization, known as one of the most dangerous of Mexico's drug cartels. They are known for engaging in brutally violent " shock and awe" tactics suc ...

cartel and killed for refusing to do work for them. Twenty one rifles, 101 ammunition clips, four bullet-proof vests, camouflage uniforms and four vehicles were seized by officials. The second massacre, the

2011 San Fernando massacre The 2011 San Fernando massacre, also known as the second massacre of San Fernando, was the mass murder of 193 people by Los Zetas drug cartel at La Joya ranch in the municipality of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, in March 2011. Authorities ...

, was discovered after Mexican authorities exhumed more than 40

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

s, with a final body count of 193 corpses. The massacres and the Mexican government's response are the subject of ''San Fernando: Última Parada'', a book written by journalist Marcela Turati.

External links

Gobierno Municipal de San Fernando
Official website

References

Municipalities of Tamaulipas {{Tamaulipas-geo-stub