Mexico: narcos riddled and burned 13 policemen alive

At least 13 policemen died and nine others were wounded in an ambush by the powerful Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel (CJNG) in the municipality of Aguililla, in the state of Michoacán, an area affected by organized crime violence.

The head of the state police revealed that the victims were part of a group of 41 police officers who, on board five police officers, were picking up a woman and her daughter to support them in the transfer in front of a judge from the region.

Two vehicles were left calcined to be attacked with bullets and fragmentation grenades. The attackers also left messages with threats for security institutions.

According to information from the Attorney General's Office (FGR), Aguililla is the hometown of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes aka El Mencho, absolute leader of the CJNG and considered the most wanted drug trafficker by the governments of Mexico and the United States.

According to the Michoacan prosecutor's office, 13 people were found dead at the scene, the 14th was found seriously injured and presumed dead at first. He is currently being treated in a hospital and his life is in great danger.

Local authorities lamented the attack: "No attack against the police will go unpunished, and it was a cowardly attack, artero as they were ambushed," the governor of the state, Silvano Aureoles.

Michoacán, a state affected by violence

Michoacan is a state affected by the presence of various criminal organizations, which led to the emergence of vigilante groups about six years ago.

On August 30, a confrontation between two armed groups left nine dead and 11 wounded in the town of Tepalcatepec, 75 kilometers from Aguililla.

The same month, the bodies of 19 people were found in the city of Uruapan, in the center of the state. Some of the bodies were hung on a bridge and others were dismembered. The state attorney general attributed these killings to clashes between rival drug gangs.

On Monday, the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that "there was a turning point in the level of growth" of voluntary homicides registered in the country.

However, from January to August, 23,063 victims of manslaughter were recorded, a fact that aims to break the record of 33,749 murders of 2018.

The administration sought to contain the wave of violence mainly through the deployment of the National Guard, a security organ composed of military personnel.

The government of the then president, Felipe Calderón, launched a controversial military offensive against organized crime in late 2006, highlighted by scholars and human rights defenders as one of the main causes the resurgence of violence in Mexico.

According to official figures, more than 250,000 murders have been recorded since, although the number of cases related to the fight against crime is not detailed.