Six Guerrero state police officers were killed in an ambush in southern Mexico
Presumed members of organized crime killed six police officers and injured five others during an ambush on a southern Mexican highway.
Alleged members of organized crime killed six police officers and injured five others during an ambush on a southern Mexican highway, the Guerrero state government said Sunday. The officers were carrying out crime prevention actions on the El Gavilán-San Gregorio highway in the municipality of Tetipac, near the state border with the State of Mexico and Morelos, when "armed civilians attacked the uniformed officers," the official statement said.
The first reports point to "a criminal group operating in the area" as a suspect, led by Roberto Carlos, known as El Pelón, who is linked to the group Guerreros Unidos, a spin-off from the La Familia Michoacana cartel. "The authorities condemn the cunning attack on the state police. Given these facts, an operation has been implemented with the participation of state and federal corporations to locate the probable perpetrators," the statement said.
In the first investigations, the State Attorney General's Office has found AK-47 and AR-15 casings. In another statement, the state Public Security Secretariat (SSP) regretted the attack, saying it had occurred in the area near the municipality of Taxco. "At this moment the priority of the SSP is the attention and care of the five officers injured in the attack," it stated.
The events in Guerrero culminate a weekend marked by violence in Mexico.
They add to the discovery of at least 10 bodies with signs of violence abandoned on the Caborca highway in northern Sonora, a state on the border with Arizona, where state police conducted patrols in which they secured two armored vehicles and firearms. It also adds to the anti-crime operation that culminated in the arrest of 29 suspected members of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, including the leader's mother and sister, José Antonio Yépez, known as El Marro.
In retaliation, criminals carried out fires and shootings on Saturday in at least 14 of the 46 municipalities in the central state of Guanajuato, including Salamanca, Cortazar, Juventino Rosas, and Celaya, which was the most affected. These facts reflect that violence has not stopped in Mexico despite the health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
With 3,000 murders, March was the most violent month in the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office as president of Mexico in December 2019. Last Friday, the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection acknowledged that there were 2,913 homicides in May, only 13 fewer than in April.
