el Rancho del Sol; 42 dead "had no chance"; police fired from a helicopter: witnesses

 Borderland Beat posted and translated by DD republished from el Diario and AP story on Yahoo News.

 

photo shows how easy it would be to encircle the ranch

The showdown at el Rancho del Sol where on Friday May 22, 42 alleged members of the CNJG and one Federal Police were killed has raised many questions as to what really happened.  The stories posted by Lucio give the governments version of what happened as well as the doubts raised by many security experts, the families of some of those killed and alleged to be CNJG, and many in the media.  The government has not always been truthful in their reports of what happened in previous clashes with cartels.

It turns out there were at least 2 witnesses to the "clash".  They were not onsite at the ranch, but close by on the highway that runs in front of the ranch and on the back perimeter of the ranch..  While they cannot give all of the details of what happened, they can give  valuable clues  to what happened.

One of the witnesses is a resident of the very small village of Puerto de Vargas consisting of about 100 inhabitants and is only about a kilometer from the ranch gate.  There is just pasture land between Puerto de Vargas and the ranch and the witness had cattle pastured there. 

To enter Puerta de Vargas one must take a very small deviation, which you can barely catch sight of, from Highway 37 that runs from Ecuandureo to Zamora, in the state of Michoacan, which has a partially paved road.

"I was looking around and I saw  the helicopter that brought police, and from that it all ended ", as he relates to the commissioner.(DD presumeablly he was referring to a Human Rights Commissoner)   The ranch "had no opportunity to defend a lot."  




The ranch,  El Sol borders this town and in their pastures, inhabitants of Puerta de Vargas were accustomed to take their animals to graze.  The ranch at times hired villagers and gave them good jobs..

But that changed two weeks ago when the land was taken by about 50 strangers, who went to the village  to give the villagers  new rules: do not enter or loiter around the ranch.

"They said they would not kill us, but for us to follow our usual routine, that they  would not take our money, but we had to stay silent and not hang around the ranch," said one local resident.

A man who acts as caretaker and  watches the road entrance to Vargas said the people who had always worked at the ranch were always peaceful people and that a few months ago the owner had rented the ranch to "one of my compadres" who lives in the town of Vistahermosa, because the owner now lives in Guadalajara, Jalisco.

They came and stole the ranch?

"Yes, and they said, you keep working, Nomás we are here, but you just keep working and they did not threaten anyone or anything.

The story that the ranch was rented was confirmed by the mayor of Tanhuato Jose Ignacio Cuevas Perez, who said that property was for  years worked as a producer, packer and marketer of alfalfa.

But that changed after the first of May, when members of CJNG shot down a helicopter in Jalisco,and the elements that took part in bringing down that helicopter   took refuge in the Rancho El Sol.

THE OPERATION

Just when the sun was rising on  Friday, May 22 a convoy of federal police came to the village of Puerta de Vargas and asked some of the local residents how to get onto the Rancho del Sol without using the front gate.  They received the support of the people of Puerta de Vargas and one citizen gave them directions on how to get around to the back side of Ranch. As it turned out that senor turned out to be one of the witnesses who watched the balacera a couple of hours later.  

According to the villagers, the police soon surrounded the  112-acre ranch and the operation began  when the helicopter arrived.

It was from the Black Hawk helicopter of federal police where most of the 42 alleged criminals were shot. They fired several bursts from a  machine gun continuously while federal agents took advantage to finish surrounding the entire field.

"The pilot raised and leveled the helicopter, then settled back and rrrrr! Buzzed pa'acá pa'allá and bullets. The helicopter was the one who killed them all," says Senor witness while riding his horse.

It was past eight o'clock.

Backed by fire from helicopter, the rest of the policemen could join the attack from several points. "They burst of fire was continuos, not only from the helicopter, but from various positions.  From where I was I saw  one shoot at the  cops.

 Many people in the village went into hiding for nearly three hours at their homes. "

"I was watching everything. From here the shooting was heard, but look, from this point I saw the helicopter that brought the cops . It was only one but it was strong the shooting was fanning , was heard very strong, this helicopter was the one who killed them all, " he told the commissioner.

After the shooting stopped two other helicoptors appeared seemingly to clean up the mess and transport the police on the ground who had been involved the shoot out.

Another witness, who works for the Green Angels, which is a rescue unit operated by the state to assist motorist on the highways, adds that federal police arrived at the scene because they were pursuing armed suspects they had met on the highway. There he saw the persuit and how this group of men sought safety at the ranch.

"After they get to the ranch  a helicopter arrived here on the road and started spraying bursts of rounds.  Bullets and grenade explosions were heard, and gradually a shitload of federal police arrived, , then came  the military to lend support but the shooting was already over. I saw that it appeared the helicoptor was following in  pursuit on the highway and then these guys went into the ranch.

No one knew in the municipalities of Tanhuato or Ecuandureo knew any of the  42 killed in the confrontation or the rest of men going in and out of the place, but there was a population who had contact with them, the same Vargas Gate, 

That changed 13 days ago when the group arrived at  the ranch.

"Many of us did business with the ranch and some people from here worked there, but when the group arrived at the ranch, we got out of there. "

Tanhuato Mayor Jose Ignacio Cuevas Pérez, explained that after several months of being empty fields, about year and a half ago there was  movement back into the ranch, we again saw tractors, cultivation was carried and they cut and packaged  alfalfa.

"There was even a time when I saw that they grew corn, like any other agricultural land in the region. The gate  was a wire mesh , and  was not was the gateway that is currently painted white. I know because I step out there very often for many years, "he specified.

He said that about 3 years ago there was a sign on the front of the property trying to sell or rent it but he did not know the owner of the property and did not know whether it was part of a denunciation of dispossession (a forced taking)..

Interviewed in his office, the mayor Michoacan, questioned the version that hours after the death of 42 people and a federal police announced the authority, which ensures that all was due to the response of an attack against police forces.

"The way the arrangement of bodies, some have no clothes, looked like a massacre rather than an operational" external Cuevas Perez, mayor of the municipality that owns a fraction of the building in which the events occurred.

In a story yesterday the AP reported that Mexican officials stand by their account.  

DD. The government account explained the lack of a concentration of bodies that you usually find in a big shootout was because the when they were asked to surrender they refused and some took off running in an attempt to escape.  That was why their bodies were scattered in the fields.  Looking  at the photo below and you have to ask yourself "would you run across those open fields surrounding the buildings to try to escape when a helicopter gunship was spraying the place with machine gun fire".

 Enrique Galindo, head of Mexico's federal police, told local media  "a helicopter gunship had participated in the shootout and that its role had been decisive. "If the helicopter had not arrived, the death toll might have been different."

National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said at a news conference later Monday that the helicopter had been hit three times by bullets from an AR-15 assault rifle.

Authorities detained three people and confiscated 38 semi-automatic weapons, two smaller arms, a grenade launcher and a .50-caliber rifle. They had initially said they seized 40 weapons.

Speaking to the television network Televisa earlier Monday, Rubido said tests on the bodies of the victims showed they had been shot "from a considerable distance ... dozens of meters (yards)," ruling out anybody having been finished off at close range. "

 Families of some of the men killed on Friday told The Associated Press that after viewing the remains of their loved ones, they doubted the official account. Relatives gathered at a local morgue said one body was missing an eye and had facial bruising, another had its teeth knocked inward. Another had a gunshot in the top of the head.






 Video of the battle obtained by The Associated Press showed federal police officers coming under fire.

DD: The more we find out, the more questions we have.  where is that video AP?