MEXICO CITY, Oct 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Gunmen killed 14 police Monday in an attack in the state of Michoacan, in western Mexico, authorities said, condemning the latest violence in the restive region, a hotspot for criminal groups and armed vigilantes.
The attack occurred on the outskirts of the city of Aguililla, the security ministry said on Twitter.
The state police officers had gone to a home in the town of El Aguaje in Aguililla municipality to enforce a judicial order when “several armed civilians fired on them”, Michoacán’s state security department said in a statement.
Local media reported that the attack was waged from an armed convoy of 20 vehicles.
After the attack, the area in western Mexico’s so-called “hot lands” was reinforced by federal and state security forces, who installed checkpoints to find the assailants.
Michoacán, an important avocado-growing state, has seen a spike in violence that has brought back memories of the bloodiest days of Mexico’s war on drug cartels between 2006 and 2012.
In August, police found 19 bodies in the town of Uruapan, including nine hung from a bridge. Later, an area roughly 45 miles north of Aguililla was the scene of fierce clashes between members of the Jalisco New Generation cartel and regional self-defense groups.
In 2013, civilian groups faced with what they said was state inaction armed themselves in Michoacán to fight the Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar) cartel, one of whose bases was Aguililla.
They said they took up arms to defend themselves from kidnappings, extortion and killings. But some of the self-defense or vigilante groups were infiltrated by cartels and gangs.
The government of the former president Enrique Peña Nieto launched a process to disarm and legalize the vigilante groups and incorporate them into official security forces.
On Monday, the Michoacan governor, Silvano Aureoles, vowed to catch the perpetrators of what he called a “cowardly” attack.
“I will not tolerate any attack on the police and let it go unpunished,” he said.
But it is unclear the extent to which he will have the support of federal authorities.
Earlier this year, Mexico’s leftist president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, declared an end to the country’s “war” on criminal groups, saying the militarized approach embraced by his predecessors has failed.
Lopez Obrador has pledged a more holistic approach to curtailing violence. But his efforts to reduce poverty and create more job opportunities for at-risk youth has not yet translated into safer streets.
“He is betting on a long-term solution,” said Ernst. “But you also need a short-term solution.”
Besides avocado orchards, Michoacán for decades has been known for marijuana plantations and the making of methamphetamine, as well as being home to the port of Lázaro Cárdenas, a key entry point of precursor chemicals used to make synthetic drugs. — NNN-AGENCIES
