Three attacks have killed at least 24 people, including more than a dozen police officers, in three states in southern Mexico, which has been swept by a wave of violence linked to drug trafficking, according to local authorities and media reports.
A police patrol was ambushed in the municipality of Cojuca de Benitez, in the state of Guerrero (southwest), with the state prosecutor’s office citing thirteen dead and two injured, among them at least 11 “members of the municipal police”.
Four civilians and a policeman were killed in another attack in the town of Takabaro, in the neighboring state of Michoacán.
These two states, part of strategic drug-trafficking corridors along the Mexican coast to the Pacific Ocean, often turn into the theater of bloody actions attributed to the powerful cartels.
Another six people were killed in an exchange between alleged drug traffickers in the municipality of San Miguel Canoa (Puebla state, central), some 120 kilometers from the capital.
In Cojuca de Benitez, the ambushed patrol was accompanying a local security official, Deputy State Attorney Alejandro Hernandez said.
The mayor of the city Osiel Pacheco, for his part, confirmed that two local public officials lost their lives, among them the security secretary Alfredo Alonso Lopez.
The official had assumed his duties in December 2022, after the resignation of his predecessor, who had suffered an armed attack, the Mexican press recalls.
“We were not aware of any threats” against him, deputy prosecutor Hernandez said for his part.
Mr. Hernandez did not elaborate on the circumstances of the attack. According to Mexican media reports, unknown gunmen had set up an ambush near a school.
Visuals circulating on social media sites show uniformed men lying face down on the ground, hands tied, dead.
“Pre-election violence”
In the neighboring state of Michoacán, five people were killed and two others wounded when gunmen attacked the brother of the mayor of the city of Takabaro, according to the state prosecutor’s office.
A restaurant employee and a municipal police officer are among the victims. The mayor’s brother was injured.
In a video uploaded to social networking sites, gunmen can be seen opening fire and then fleeing in cars.
More than 420,000 murders have been officially recorded in Mexico since the so-called “war on drugs” began in 2006, with the deployment of the armed forces inside the country to crack down on the cartels. Since then, the country’s homicide rate has tripled, reaching 25 per 100,000 residents. Over 110,000 enforced disappearances have also been recorded, the majority since 2006. Both the murders and the enforced disappearances are attributed by the authorities to organized crime gangs.
The states of Guerrero and Michoacán have been hit hardest by the endless wave of violence in Mexico, due to conflicts both between gangs and between criminals and security forces.
Guerrero, home to the spa town of Acapulco, a magnet for Mexican and foreign tourists, is among the poorest in the country.
Violence against local public officials often escalates when elections are on the horizon — presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in 2024.
“Guerrero has long known one of the most complex armed conflicts in Mexico, but the current levels of pre-election violence are unusual,” noted International Crisis Group analyst Falco Ernst via X (formerly Twitter).
In the first nine months of this year, almost 1,100 people were murdered in this state, a number increased by almost 25% compared to the corresponding period in 2022, according to official data.
Source: News Beast
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