Armed attacks in Veracruz leave seven dead
The killings took place in the municipalities of Tlalixcoyan, which is located in the central coastal area, and San Andres Tuxtla, which is located in the rainforest zone of southern Veracruz and is an entity that has difficulties with insecurity.
At least seven dead and two wounded left two armed attacks in the last twelve hours in Veracruz, local authorities reported Monday. Among the victims is a former municipal official.
The homicides occurred in the municipalities of Tlalixcoyan, a central coastal area, and San Andres Tuxtla, a jungle region in southern Veracruz, an entity with insecurity problems that had been kept at bay in recent months.
The first violent incident occurred this morning inside a house located in the municipality of Tlalixcoyan, where four members of a family were shot dead, among them the former municipal official Candido Sanchez Vargas.
According to police sources, another person was wounded and was taken to a regional hospital for medical attention.
In response to the incident, agents of the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP) activated the so-called Code Red Operation to search for those responsible. However, to date they have not been located.
Meanwhile, in the municipality of San Andrés Tuxtla, located in one of the jungle redoubts of the Mexican southeast, armed men entered a hotel in the afternoon and shot four people.
Three of them died and one more was seriously wounded and was taken to a local hospital. Following the incident, municipal police mounted a heavy security operation.
During the first semester of 2022, Veracruz ranked first nationally in the number of victims of atrocities and the first place in atrocities, reported the civil organization Causa en Común.
Between January and June, Veracruz was one of the nine states with the highest number of atrocities with 157. The states with the most atrocity victims registered during the period were Veracruz, with at least 784; Chiapas, with 641; Michoacán, with 392; Guanajuato, with 365; and Baja California, with 284.
Mexico registered 33,308 homicides in 2021, after the two most violent years in its history, under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with 34,690 murder victims in 2019 and 34,554 in 2020.
