Deadly Encounter in Guerrero Leaves 5 Dead

The confrontation left at least five people dead, including three police officers and five others wounded.

Coyuca, Guerrero - Around 5pm on December 3, elements from the Federal Police, Judicial Police, two groups from the State Police, and other government forces- making up the "Mixed Unit to Combat Drug Dealing" (Unidad Mixta de Atención al Narcomenudeo, UMAN) – where assaulted by unknown assailants while carrying out an operation.

According to the Secretariat of Public Security and Civil Protection the event took place in the community of Las Cruces, municipal of Coyuca de Catalán in Guerrero.

The police officers responded to the aggression, resulting in the death of Alfonso Benítez, a Federal Public Prosecution agent, Armando Mota Cortés, Judicail Police commander, and José Cortes Molina, an agent with the State Police.

Likewise, two of the assailants, whose identity still remains unknown, died during the encounter. Five other individuals where injured as well, four government law enforcement agents and one other assailant.

Mexico is experiencing a wave of violence stemming from the fight between drug cartels, under which some 120 policemen were murdered in 2008, according to official figures, and hundreds so far this year.

The government has deployed almost 50 thousand soldiers and thousands of police to confront the cartels, who are responsible for more than 14 thousand murders in the last three years so far.

Categories: guerrero, organized crime