REYNOSA, Tamaulipas – Cartel gunmen and Mexican military forces clashed in this border city just hours before Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador visited Reynosa to push a new economic plan for border cities. The local head of the Gulf Cartel in the border city of Nuevo Progreso is presumed to have been killed in that clash.

The gun battle took place in the early morning hours of Friday when close to 20 SUVs with Gulf Cartel the Scorpions faction of the Gulf Cartel rolled into Reynosa as they continue their turf war with the faction called Los Metros. The two factions clashed in the city’s eastern side, including various industrial areas and the neighborhoods surrounding the city’s airport and near the international bridge with Pharr, Texas.

The Mexican military responded to the scene and began to exchange gunfire with the convoys of cartel gunmen. During the shootout with military forces, a cartel SUV with four gunmen inside went up in flames in the Riberas del Aeropuerto neighborhood. Military forces chased the cartel gunmen out of Reynosa into the border city of Rio Bravo where they killed two cartel gunmen who were riding in a maroon SUV.

Unofficial information provided to Breitbart News by Tamaulipas law enforcement sources revealed that during the clashes, military forces killed Carlos “Carlitos Whiskies” Gonzalez Escobar the Gulf Cartel plaza boss or regional leader for the border town of Nuevo Progreso. Breitbart News unmasked Gonzalez Escobar in 2015 when it published a list of the secret leaders of the Gulf Cartel.

The shootouts took place just hours before Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador visited Reynosa where he spoke about his economic plan for Mexico’s border where he is pushing for a decrease in taxes and an increase in minimum wage.