Day Of Bloodshed In Southwest Mexico Kills At Least 19 People, Including Police And Officials

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – Authorities say a local security secretary and 12 police officers were killed in Guerrero state on Monday, the bloodiest incident in a day of violence across southwestern Mexico that killed at least 19 people.

Another person was killed in the state capital of Guerrero, while five people, including a police officer, were killed in the neighboring state of Michoacan, according to officials.

Eleven persons were first reported murdered in the incident in El Papayo, located on the Pacific Coast of Guerrero in the community of Coyuca de Benitez. Two more police officers were killed, according to the state prosecutor’s office, hours later.

Day Of Bloodshed In Southwest Mexico Kills At Least 19 People, Including Police And Officials.

According to Gabriel Hernández Mendoza, state deputy prosecutor for investigations, one of those killed was Coyuca de Bentez’s secretary for security. He didn’t go into any greater detail.

Rigoberto Acosta González, a community leader and academic, was reported shot dead in Chilpancingo, the Guerrero state capital, 60 miles (95 km) northeast of Coyuca de Benitez.

At least five people were killed and two more were injured in Michoacan, north of Guerrero, according to the state attorney general’s office on X, formerly Twitter.

Officials are increasingly vulnerable in the region, where numerous powerful drug cartels continue to vie for dominance. According to Common Cause data, 341 police officers have been killed in Mexico this year. At least 403 people were killed in 2022.

The bodies of the five individuals killed in Michoacan were discovered on a roadway in the community of Tacambaro after an attack on the mayor’s brother. The state prosecutor’s office declined to say whether the mayor’s brother was among those injured.

A social media video of the incident showed heavy gunshots followed by at least five armed men running to board a pickup truck.

According to the National Security Department, despite the government dispatching nearly 2,000 National Guard troops and military personnel last month, Michoacan is still one of Mexico’s deadliest states.

Several criminal organizations, including the strong Jalisco New Generation cartel, the Familia Michoacana, the Viagras, and the Knights Templar, are reported to operate in the region.

Gun violence has also spread to neighboring communities. On Sunday, gunfire at an illegal horse race in Queretaro, a central state on Michoacan’s northern border, killed five people and injured five more.

SOURCE – (AP)