“According to information from the entity’s Attorney General’s Office, there were 20 victims, including the mayor of that municipality, Conrado Mendoza, and his father,” who had also been mayor of San Miguel Totolapan, said this Thursday in press conference Ricardo Mejía, undersecretary of Public Security.
The general secretary of the city council of San Miguel Totolapan, Freddy Vázquez, told the press that an armed group came shooting at the municipal palace, and that the mayor was killed while he was in a work meeting outside “in a private house”, where They also broke in.
“At first we couldn’t believe it, we have a peaceful municipality, we were calm in peace and we thought they were rockets, because we have the fair right now (…), but little by little we listened more closely and realized that they were shots,” he said .
The attorney general of Guerrero, Sandra Luz Valdovinos, told the Televisión Azteca network on Thursday that there are still no detainees for the massacre.
“From the inquiries collected, there is not enough evidence to determine who is probably responsible,” he explained.
Ricardo Mejía also added that the murders occurred in the context of disputes between criminal groups in the area, including one known as “Los Tequileros”, dedicated to the transfer of poppy, kidnapping and extortion, and another group called “La Familia Michoacana”.
“There is a dispute with a criminal group known as the Familia Michoacana (…), a line of investigation links them to this group ‘Tequileros’, as they may be responsible for these events,” he said.
– Violence in Tierra Caliente –
San Miguel Totolapan is part of a region known as Tierra Caliente, where Guerrero, Michoacán (west) and the state of Mexico (central) converge.
That area is vital for the transfer of drugs that arrive at the ports of Guerrero on their way to Mexico City.
“The area has passed through the control of different groups,” security analyst David Saucedo told AFP. “It is possible that the murder was due to a dispute between the ‘Tequileros’ and ‘La Familia Michoacana’ for control of the municipality.”
The Tequileros had acted years ago in this community, mainly perpetrating kidnappings for ransom, but their influence was diminished in 2018 after the death of one of their leaders in a clash with community police.
According to the press, days ago, alleged messages from this criminal cell circulated in the community in which they threatened to return to San Miguel Totolapan.
“There is already a serious dispute over the territory,” says Daniel Moreno, editor of the Animal Politico portal and a native of the area. “The ‘pax narca’ is over and the concern is great because the civilian population is affected.”
– Without peace –
For more than two decades, Guerrero, on the Pacific coast and one of the poorest states in the country, has been shaken by violence unleashed by the presence of rival groups seeking to control drug trafficking and poppy cultivation and dope.
Organized crime groups are linked to politics in the area, which has made it difficult to pacify the state despite the deployment of federal forces.
“We have a series of feudal lords, warlords, drug traffickers who control various areas of the state (…) and the parties, instead of fighting these structures, have relied on them to win elections,” said Saucedo.
The attack occurred a day after the Mexican Senate approved a controversial reform supported by the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to keep the army in public security tasks until 2028.
Mexico has recorded more than 340,000 murders, most attributed to criminal organizations, since the launch of a controversial anti-drug military offensive in December 2006.
