Cartel gunman, police shoot it out in Mexico's Guerrero state...
Armed Clashes Kill 11 in Mexico's Troubled Guerrero State
January 07, 2018 — Violent clashes involving gunmen, a community police force and state police killed 11 people in the troubled southern state of Guerrero on Sunday, while a separate series of shootouts the previous night left seven dead in the northern Mexico beach resort of San Jose del Cabo.
Guerrero state security spokesman Roberto Alvarez said eight people were initially killed when gunmen ambushed community police before dawn in the town of La Concepcion, near the resort city of Acapulco. Two of the dead were from the community force. Later in the morning, state police arrived to disarm the local agents, and another shootout erupted in which three people were killed. Alvarez said he did not know how they died, but local media said they were community police. State Attorney General Xavier Olea Pelaez said 30 members of the community police were detained on suspicion of crimes including homicide and illegal weapons and drug possession.
Among those arrested was Marco Antonio Suastegui, the founder of the community force and the leader of a social movement that for over a decade has fought against a hydroelectric project in the region. Photojournalist Bernandino Hernandez said that while covering the violence he was beaten, kicked and dragged by state police and forcibly relieved of his camera's memory cards. He also witnessed several other journalists being treated roughly. Hernandez said he had photographed police using force against locals who tried to prevent the arrest of the community agents: "Some people were dragged by the hair to take them away." Hernandez is a regular contributor of photographs to The Associated Press but was not on assignment for AP at the time.
Guerrero has been one of Mexico's most violent states in recent years, home to marijuana and opium poppy fields as well as warring organized crime gangs. It's also where 43 teachers college students disappeared in 2014 after being taken by police from the city of Iguala who allegedly handed them over to a drug cartel. They remain missing. In the northern state of Baja California Sur, prosecutors said in a statement that marines responding Saturday night to reports of gunfire in San Jose del Cabo came upon heavily armed men wearing tactical vests and riding in two vehicles with license plates from the U.S. state of California.
Both vehicles sped off with the marines in pursuit and subsequently crashed, the statement said. In two separate exchanges of gunfire, all seven of the cars' occupants were shot dead by marines. Baja California Sur has also seen an explosion of violence as the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels battle for territory in the state. In late December, four bodies were found hanging from highway overpasses in the resort-studded Los Cabos area.
https://www.voanews.com/a/armed-clas...e/4197599.html
Suspect arrested in missing students case...
Mexico missing students: Key suspect arrested
13 Mar.`18 - Federal police in Mexico have arrested a man they say is a key suspect in the disappearance of 43 students from the town of Iguala in 2014.
Erick Uriel Sandoval is accused of forming part of the gang that is thought to have killed the trainee teachers and burned their bodies. He was arrested in Cocula, the town near the rubbish dump where remains of one of the missing students were found. The disappearance of the 43 caused outrage in Mexico and abroad. Alfredo Higuera from the prosecutor's office in charge of investigating the case said that Mr Sandoval was accused of having "played a key role in the actions against the students". Local media alleged that he was one of the gang members tasked with shooting dead the students.
Vanished after protesting
The 43 were part of a larger group of students from a teacher training college in Ayotzinapa who travelled to the nearby town of Iguala to protest against what they saw as discriminatory hiring practices for teachers. As they were travelling back from Iguala to Ayotzinapa, they were confronted by municipal police, who opened fire on the buses they were travelling in. The officers maintained they did so because the buses had been hijacked, while the surviving students said that the drivers had agreed to give them a lift. The 43 missing students have not been seen since that clash on 26 September 2014.
Relatives of the missing students hold regular protests in Mexico City
According to the official government report, they were handed over by corrupt police officers to members of local drugs gang Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors). The gang then took them to a local rubbish dump, where they killed them and burned their bodies, the official report continues. However, independent experts have cast doubt on the official report, pointing out that the chain of evidence was broken when the bone fragments were tested. They also said that the government had hampered their investigation.
Key suspect
Mr Sandoval is accused of forming part of the Guerreros Unidos drugs gang and prosecutors say he had "direct contact" with the students following their disappearance. He is one of five suspects for whom prosecutors have offered a reward of 1.5m pesos ($81,000; £58,000). One of the members of Guerreros Unidos already in custody has reportedly named Mr Sandoval as one of the people who were at the rubbish dump the night the students were killed and their bodies burned. More than 100 people have been arrested in connection with the case but, two and a half years since the students' disappearance, doubts remain as to what happened to them.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-43385836
Mexico: 2nd Deadliest Country in 2016
And this is another winter I spent in Mexico without seeing or hearing of one violent incident in my vicinity. But then I have another three weeks until I return to the Pacific NW.
I don't really follow the Mexican news. I don't read Mexican newspapers or watch Mexican TV. Of course I know about the drug cartel violence in the border towns. I know that various parts of Mexico like Acupulco can be dangerous. Most of what I hear is by word of mouth.
I have heard mention of incidents in Cancun, but I don't know that it is a rising concern. Where I live is very tame and quiet. I once heard about some tourists from a cruise ship getting robbed on some jungle tour a few years ago, but that's about it. I have never seen or witnessed any violent act in Mexico. Ever. I've never seen anyone get into a fight here.
The worst thing I've ever seen here was a drunk tourist yelling at a maintenance staff member of a condo complex because the ice machine was broken.
Mexican Congresswoman kidnapped by gunmen...
Gunmen kidnap newly elected Mexican congresswoman
AUG. 15, 2018 -- Armed men kidnapped a newly elected congresswoman Wednesday after forcing her vehicle to crash on a highway in Hidalgo state, Mexican security forces said.Norma Azucena Rodríguez Zamora, 32, was riding in her car with her driver and assistant when the gunmen opened fire. The car flipped over and crashed, injuring Rodríguez's companions.
BBC reported the gunmen pulled Rodríguez from the wreckage of her vehicle and forced her into their vehicle, which Britain's The Telegraph said was a black Volkswagen Bora.
Members of Rodríguez's party, the Party of the Democratic Revolution, called on security officials to quickly find her alive.
Rodríguez was elected July 1 to represent the state of Veracruz in Mexico's lower house of Congress. She was due to take her seat Sept. 1.
It won't end well for her.
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