Thirteen Mexican police and investigating officers were killed in an ambush as they traveled through a rural region, which was the latest attack on law enforcement by rogue criminal groups.
According to officials, eight state police officers and five members of the investigating police force were killed in the ambush in the municipality of Coatepec Harinas, 125 km (78 miles) southwest of Mexico City in the state of Mexico.
“This is an insult to the Mexican state and we will respond with total force and with the support of the law,” Mexico State Security Secretary Rodrigo Martinez-Celis said. told reporters. According to the State Attorney General’s Office, officers traveled through the region to fight criminal groups.
The state of Mexico, which surrounds the national capital on three sides and houses more than 15 million inhabitants, is full of drug cartels and organized crime.
A state government intelligence report obtained by the news organization Animal Politico in September identified 26 criminal groups operating in the state – with La Familia Michoacana and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel fighting for control of key areas. La Familia is suspected of controlling the area where officers were led into a trap and driving extortion rings and controlling the prices of everything from tortillas to building materials, according to the report.
Photos posted on social media showed bloody bodies of officers in uniforms and streetwear strewn at the crime scene, next to a white pickup truck packed with bullet holes.
Attacks on police have become routine in Mexico as the country’s problems with drug cartels and organized crime continue and the murder rate remains stubbornly high. At least 524 Mexican police officers were killed in 2020, according to the NGO Causa and Común against crime. Criminal groups that co-operate or cooperate with police forces can also be common in parts of Mexico.
The police are often caught and “do not meet the criminal demands and also suffer from it, or they comply with it and are targeted by other groups that are in conflict with those with whom they were involved”, said Falko Ernst, senior analyst from Mexico said. International Crisis Group.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to satisfy the country with a less confrontational approach – ‘do not embrace bullets’, he often said in his 2018 campaign – while also addressing issues such as corruption and poverty.
Thereafter, he promoted the formation of a militarized police force known as the National Guard, which functions under military leadership.