The Mexican Government raised the death toll this Friday to 19 after a confrontation on Thursday between criminal groups and the Army in the municipality of Tecpan de Galeana, in Guerrero, a state in southern Mexico that is facing a wave of violence from organized crime.
“There are several attacks that military personnel receive. The result is 17 aggressors who lose their lives, 11 detained, 2 municipal politicians killed and 4 injured,” said the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection of Mexico, Omar García Harfuch, at the Government’s morning conference.
The Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) had reported on Thursday night that 14 criminals were killed and 2 officers were killed after the emergence of a criminal group in the municipality.
García Harfuch now explained that the criminals, from the alleged Gente Nueva Group, entered the community around 05:00 local time (11:00 GMT) in five vehicles, although “originally they were not going to attack the Army,” but rather a rival criminal association that operates in Tecpan de Galeana, called Los Granados.
“The deployment of the Army prevented there from being a confrontation or harm to civilians in the population and there were arrests by the Army, there are 11 detainees, so that these events do not go unpunished,” said the secretary at the conference. press, which was now in the northern state of Baja California Sur.
The criminals, the official detailed, had 50 caliber barret rifles and 7.72 by 51 caliber Minimi machine guns.
The investigations involve knowing the origin of the weapons.
“Right now we are investigating, of course, and all the vehicles that participated, all of them, were secured by the Mexican Army. These groups, as we can see, have very important firepower,” he concluded.
Guerrero is experiencing a wave of violence from organized crime that also affects politicians, since last October 6, opponent Alejandro Arcos, mayor of Chilpancingo, the state capital, was beheaded in a fact that has not yet been fully clarified. EFE
