In Tierra Caliente (Hot Land) It Is Getting Hotter and Hotter.

Posted by DD republished material from MexicoNewsDaily

Nearly 2 dozen people reported missing in southern Mexico in the last 72 hours

Gang storms school, kidnaps five staff

At least 30 men dressed as police officers terrorized the Technical Secondary School No. 114 in Santa Ana del Águila in the municipality of Ajuchitlán - See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/gang-storms-school-kidnaps-five-staff/#sthash.XPcInr7I.dpuf

This past Monday at least 30 men dressed as police officers terrorized the Technical Secondary School No. 114 in Santa Ana del Águila in the municipality of Ajuchitlán in Guerrero and grabbed  principal Joaquín Real Toledo four other staff members.  

The tension among the students and staff increased when one of the assailants threatened a 10 year old little girl with a rifle when he saw her holding what turned out to be a toy cell phone.  

The gang forced the principal and 4 staff members (one of them a woman) into trucks and sped away.  Students were sent home and the school was closed, and as news of the kidnapping spread, the streets of the village of fewer than 1,000 became deserted.  

None of the kidnapped has been seen since and their whereabouts remain unknown.   Two state police patrol cars and elements of the Army later arrived to guard the entry points into town and patrol the nearby Las Campanas hill in search of the missing teachers 

The kidnapped educators have been identified as Joaquin Real, the principal, and teachers Guadalupe Olea, Martin Blancas, Javier Calderon and Jose Maria Torres.

In December, Santa Ana del Águila was the scene of the murder of the director of social development of Ajuchitlán, while last year the town’s elementary and secondary schools remained closed for several days during March and April after a teacher was kidnapped by an armed gang.

Last Friday morning, 15 first-year students at an elementary school in Totolapan had to hit the floor during a gunfight just meters outside their classroom.

It was about 8:30am and students were just beginning their day when gunshots were suddenly heard nearby. Their teacher quickly instructed the children to lie flat on the floor and remain silent.

Two minutes of the 30-minute-long gunfight were recorded by the teacher from inside the classroom. Most of the students reacted with nervous laughter and had to be reminded to keep quiet, but fear was evident too.

The gunfight outside the school lasted for 30 minutes and fortunately no one in the school was injured.  However an unfortunate  farmer passing in front of the school,  Pedro Calderón, 65, was caught in the crossfire and left wounded at the scene. He died hours later in hospital in the neighboring town of Arcelia.

 3 klled and 17 kidnapped on the way to a wedding.

Fox News reported that Gunmen killed three men in El Salitre, a community outside the city of Arcelia, as they were heading to a wedding last Saturday night, and 17 others were reported missing.  As reports of missing men come in more men may be missing, Arcelia Mayor Adolfo Torales told EFE.

 The Mayor said that the caravan of cars was going as group to a wedding when a group of heavily armed men wearing military uniforms stopped the procession on the highway.  The armed men told the men to all go wait under a bridge and told all the women and children to walk in the other direction and not return for 3 hours.  The armed men accused the men of being members of the cartel La Familia Michoacana

"They took just the men, leaving the women and children," Torales told Radio Formula.

The Mayor said  the missing are "totally innocent" people, among them "blacksmiths, shopkeepers, farmers. They're very poor people." 

The families who had started walking toward the town as they were ordered to do ran into some federal police who ignored their pleas for help Torales said.  

Governor Hector Astudillo said "an important deployment" of troops and police was sent to the area to search for the 17 missing men.  

Yahoo News reported the bullet-riddled bodies of two men were found at the scene of the abduction along with some 15 abandoned cars, including two that were burned, and two motorcycles.

A third body was found 300 meters (yards) from the road.

Fos News reported that  a total of 319 drug-related murders have been reported in Guerrero during the 76 days that Hector Astudillo has served as governor, according to a tally prepared by the Reforma newspaper.

Murders have been reported in 27 of the 81 cities in Guerrero since Astudillo, a member of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, took office, with 130 drug-related killings taking place in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco alone. EFE

Violence and extortion out of control in Acapulco

Mexico Daily News reported that the first week of 2016 was exceptionally violent for the Pacific port city of Acapulco, where business owners — tortilla makers, in particular — charge that extortion by organized crime groups is out of control.

Among extortion victims are street vendors in Chilpancingo who have been murdered after refusing to continue paying criminal organizations for the right to sell their products, what is commonly known as derecho de piso 

Acapulco’s tortilla makers have been particularly victimized this week, with reports of up to seven murdered in violent clashes with criminal gangs.

Teachers have also become a target, as information concerning the times and places where they collect their pensions, end-of-year bonuses or monthly checks is widely known.
Acapulco’s tortilla makers have been particularly victimized this week, with reports of up to seven murdered in violent clashes with criminal gangs.
- See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/extortion-cases-surge-tortilla-stores-targeted/#sthash.7ZVl8uKy.dpuf

 According to anonymous reports to media outlets by workers at tortillerías, or tortilla stores, crime gangs for years have demanded the payment of fees to allow them to keep their businesses open.

The first week of 2016 was exceptionally violent for the Pacific port city of Acapulco, where business owners — tortilla makers, in particular — charge that extortion by organized crime groups is out of control. - See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/extortion-cases-surge-tortilla-stores-targeted/#sthash.7ZVl8uKy.dpuf

But suddenly the criminal organizations escalated their demands and the violence increased.

“We do not know nor understand what is going on. We’ve all paid, we’ve all complied, and we don’t understand this situation,” said workers.

“Everybody pays the derecho de piso, it’s a widely known secret and nobody denies it [paying fees]. We only want to stay in business.”

Arcadio Castro, leader of the Tortilla Association of Guerrero, said that 20 workers lost their lives in 2015 in clashes with organized crime, while this year the tally is already seven dead.

“We’re scared. One [gang member] comes by, then another, and if you don’t pay, they open fire. It already happened to me, they opened fire and left my people lying there, dead. If you keep refusing to pay, they come and kidnap you.”

Throughout the state of Guerrero, at least 25 people have lost their lives since the beginning of the year.

President Pena Nieto said this week "Guerrero is a challenging situation".

At least 30 men dressed as police officers terrorized the Technical Secondary School No. 114 in Santa Ana del Águila in the municipality of Ajuchitlán - See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/gang-storms-school-kidnaps-five-staff/#sthash.XPcInr7I.dpuf

At least 30 men dressed as police officers terrorized the Technical Secondary School No. 114 in Santa Ana del Águila in the municipality of Ajuchitlán - See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/gang-storms-school-kidnaps-five-staff/#sthash.XPcInr7I.dpuf

15 first-year students at an elementary school in Totolapan had to hit the floor during a gunfight - See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/in-tierra-caliente-no-end-to-the-violence/#sthash.JihM0flP.dpuf

n Totolapan

Gang storms school, kidnaps five staff

Gang storms school, kidnaps five staff