Multiple clashes Thursday between Mexican security forces and suspected criminals left at least 16 people dead in the violence-plagued southern state of Guerrero, the military said, the same day a car bomb left outside a police station in western Mexico injured three police officers. .
A first skirmish took place in the town of Tecpan de Galeana, near the Pacific coast, where two were killed and four others wounded.
Later, security forces confronted a criminal group that had attacked a military base in the same area, killing 14 armed men, according to a statement from the national defense secretariat SEDENA.
Guerrero, one of Mexico’s poorest states, has endured years of violence linked to internecine wars between cartels fighting for control of drug production and trafficking.
Last year, 1,890 murders were recorded in the state, which is home to the resort town of Acapulco, a former playground for the rich and famous, now ravaged by crime.
In early October, the mayor of Guerrero’s capital was killed less than a week after taking office. his decapitation sparking outrage across the country and demands for more protection.
Further north, on Thursday, in the state of Guanajuato, a car bomb exploded in front of a police station, injuring three police officers, local officials said.
Ivan Arias / REUTERS
The explosion damaged the police station, four houses and several homes, but the officers were the only ones injured, the department said.
Authorities said another explosion, apparently a second car bomb, occurred in the nearby town of Jerecuaro. Although no one was injured, the force of this second explosion was enough to blow off the tiled roof of a building, blacken the facades of surrounding stores and set a police patrol van on fire.
The near-simultaneous attacks in two different towns about a half-hour apart suggest the involvement of drug cartels that have been waging bloody internecine battles for years in Guanajuato.
The central region is a thriving industrial hub and home to several popular tourist destinations, but it is also now considered Mexico’s most violent state.
On October 4, the bodies of 12 killed police officers were found in different neighborhoods of Salamanca, a city in Guanajuato.
Cartel wars persist
Officials say violence in the state stems from a conflict between the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the Jalisco New Generation cartel, one of the most powerful in all of Mexico.
“I want to be very categorical: our priority is the pacification of Guanajuato, and we will carry out this complex task together,” state Governor Libia Garcia said on social media after Thursday’s attack.
She said an air and ground operation had been launched involving state security forces to support the municipal police.
Mexico has suffered more than 450,000 drug-related homicides since the government began using the military to fight cartels in 2006.
President Claudia Sheinbaumwho took office on October 1, pledged to continue her predecessor’s strategy of using social policy to tackle crime at its roots, while making better use of intelligence.
“The war on drugs will not come back,” she said, referring to the offensive launched in 2006 with US support.
Sinaloa, the cartel’s stronghold in the northwest of the country, has also seen a surge in violence since the drug lord’s arrest in July. Ishmaël “El Mayo” Zambada in the United States. Last month he pleaded not guilty in a U.S. drug trafficking case that accuses him of participating in assassination plots and ordering torture.
On Monday, Mexican troops were shot 19 suspected members of the Sinaloa cartel after being attacked.
The capture of Zambada triggered infighting between his supporters and gunmen loyal to imprisoned cartel founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman and his sons.
Zambada accused Joaquín Guzmán López— one of El Chapo’s sons who led a cartel faction known as “Chapitos” — to kidnap him and turn him over to U.S. law enforcement.
According to an indictment released last year by the U.S. Department of Justice, the “Chapitos” and their cartel associates used corkscrews, electrocution and hot peppers to torture their rivals while some of their victims were “fed, dead or alive, to the tigers”. El Chapo’s sons were among 28 Sinaloa cartel members indicted as part of a massive investigation into fentanyl trafficking announced in April 2023.
El Chapo is serving a life sentence in a Colorado maximum security prison after being convicted in 2019 for charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons offenses.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
