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By Chris Covert
Ranburg.com
A newspaper office was attacked with small arms and hand grenades last Friday night in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas state, according to Mexican news and Twitter accounts.
According to a web posting Sunday morning by El Universal news daily, the offices of El Manana was attacked at around 2300 hrs Friday by armed suspects. The firing last five minutes.
No one was reported hurt in the attack and damage was limited to the walls of the building and nearby parked cars. The armed suspects committing the attack then left a blanket painted with a message, the contents of which were not disclosed in news accounts.
Blankets painted with messages are colloquially known as narcopintas or narcomantas, depending on the area of Mexico they are found. The contents are often claims and threats, which in most cases are not considered credible. However, those messages are the drug cartels' most effective means of mass communication with the broader citizenry.
Nuevo Laredo is in the grip of a deadly competition between Los Zetas drug gang, of which Nuevo Laredo is considered to be their home turf and the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels, which have vowed to end Los Zetas' dominance in the city.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com