Matamoros (Mexico) (AFP) - Twenty cars line up between police cruisers in a violent northeastern Mexican city, ready to be escorted at high speed across a notorious "death highway" infested with gangs that kill and kidnap.
Many are Mexican migrants who drove across the border to Matamoros from the United States, bearing gifts for their families for the Christmas holidays.
Others are local residents who know the dangers they face driving across Tamaulipas, the state with the highest number of missing people in Mexico -- 5,000 out of 26,000 nationally -- and regular drug cartel battles.
With that in mind, the federal police launched "Operation Tread" in 2013 to escort civilian cars across Route 101, a ghostly highway with closed or deserted restaurants and businesses along the way. Things here are so bad, it is known as "death highway." ...
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