Six people died and fourteen were injured Tuesday evening, July 12, in an ambush attributed to the cartels in the town of Tlajomulco, in northwestern Mexico. The attack was described as terrorist by some media in view of the method used, while the country has experienced an upsurge in violence in recent days, especially against the security forces.
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“ It’s something we’ve never seen before here “Said the governor of the state of Jalisco, Enrique Alfaro to describe the deadly attack which killed six people including four police officers, south of the city of Guadalajara, Tuesday July 12. He is, however, at the head of one of the most violent states in the federation, with 1,095 homicides and 750 disappearances since the beginning of the year alone. ” It was a trap, a brutal act of terror » which is similar to a « challenge to the Mexican state as a whole “, he specified.
The police were drawn to a country road by an anonymous call reporting human remains abandoned in the area, says our correspondent in Mexico City, Emmanuelle Steels. The action was premeditated: six devices exploded as the vehicles passed, decimating the convoy. The attack was attributed to the cartels, which have been violently attacking the authorities and security forces for the past few days. The governor accused the organized crime without specifically mentioning the Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG), one of the two most formidable in Mexico.
The municipality of Tlajomulco, near Guadalajara, already had the sad reputation of being an open-air mass grave. Some 200 bodies were found there this year in mass graves, alleged victims of the war between the cartels. The state of Jalisco is the Mexican state with the highest number of missing persons: some 15,000 out of a total of 111,203 registered since 1962.
Attacks of incredible ferocity
In this country accustomed to narco-violence, attacks with explosives remain relatively rare. In June, a National Guard agent died and others were injured in a car bomb explosion in Guanajuato state. In the state of Guerrero, in the south of the country, thirteen police officers and soldiers were kidnapped for several hours by members of a local cartel who were demanding the release of one of their leaders. In Sonora, in the northwest of the country, three police officers who had been kidnapped were found dead last weekend. Finally, in Tamaulipas, in the northeast, a region set on fire and bloodshed by the cartels for several weeks, the vehicle of a senior regional government official was riddled with bullets while traveling on a road.
Attacks are therefore being carried out in the four corners of the country with unprecedented ferocity, while the security forces have been instructed by the government not to engage in violent clashes with criminal organizations. Mexico has recorded some 350,000 murders while tens of thousands of people have gone missing since 2006 and the outbreak of a military offensive against organized crime. The head of the CJNG, Nemesio Oseguera “El Mencho”is wanted by the United States, which offers 10 million dollars for his capture.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is accused of having preached conciliation with the cartels, which American Republicans would like to classify in the list of terrorist organizations.
Read alsoMexico: bags containing human remains found in the west of the country
(eyou with AFP)