Xochipala, Guerrero: 50 Person Armed Commando Ambush Police

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Universal

Plus: Extra Sources incl Proceso
Chilpancingo, Gro  : "The government left us alone for a year," said residents of the town of La Laguna, belonging to the Eduardo Neri municipality, after more than 100 armed civilians stormed this morning and attacked the base of the State Rural Police ( PRE), with the balance of a dead officer and another five injured.

According to inhabitants of the small community located in the southern mountains, 29 kilometers from the crossroads to Casa Verde, between the towns of Xochipala and El Mirabal, at 7:00 am it simply "rained down lead," and reproached the vacuum of authority in the Sierra.

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Earlier Wednesday, the armed group, presumably led by Onésimo Marquina Chapa, "El Necho" de Tlacotepec, attacked for the second time the base of the PRE in La Laguna, where at least 12 elements that were on guard repelled the attack.

The El Necho group , which also dominates the mining area of ​​Carrizalillo, has had a confrontation since last year with the Southern cartel, led by Isaac Navarrete Celis, "El Señor de la I" - defined in Chichihualco, Zumpango and Chilpancingo -, the control of areas of poppy production and transfer of heroin, according to state reports.

The first time the band of El Necho focused their anger against the police corporation was on March 3 of this same year. However, on that occasion the attack was not as serious and prolonged as now, said a policeman interviewed on the scene, who requested anonymity.

This time, a hundred hitmen attacked the police base on three fronts, whose façade was practically destroyed, witnesses and survivors said.

In parallel, another armed group intercepted five private cars and a public transport unit at the height of the village of Xochipala, where they forced civilians to descend. Immediately after, the vehicles were burned on the road, with the purpose of preventing support from coming while the confrontation took place in La Laguna.

The testimonies indicate that the majority of civilians traveling in the public transport unit were teaching staff and that the aggressors only took the driver.

During the day, the daily activities in La Laguna were interrupted by violence, and the inhabitants remained locked in their homes.

It was learned that the traffic on the Xochipala-Filo de Caballos highway was interrupted because the armed confrontations continued in the towns of Los Morros, Carrizal de Bravo and Filo de Caballos, where the electric power system was interrupted. So far, the situation in the area is unknown.

The state government issued a statement, only to point out that the armed group that attacked the state police also stole official weapons.

"The assailants took a Barrington firearm, type DSA, caliber 7.62, license plate DSA24580 and a short weapon Px4, 9mm, number PX07491, which was carried by the PRE coordinator who was executed, it is an Accreditable agent of the basic unit of Operations ", the document indicates.

The base of the PRE, in the town of La Laguna, was formed in 2013 by a group of commissioners of the municipalities Eduardo Neri, Leonardo Bravo and Heliodoro Castillo, and recognized by the former governor Angel Aguirre Rivero, who provided them with weapons, equipment and official patrols.

Last year, the confrontation between criminal gangs in that area of ​​the entity worsened, detonating the massive displacement of people, as well as an undetermined number of homicides and missing persons.

Violence in the Sierra and the Central region of the state has also led to the suspension of classes. And, in this crime-controlled fringe, teachers, doctors and transporters refuse to provide services in the absence of security guarantees. The area of the Sierra is a main poppy production zone.

The inhabitants of Filo de Caballos reported that the attackers arrived from two routes, one through Corralitos, on the Tlacotepec side, and another through Xochipala.

On the Xochipala side, at least four vehicles, including a public service combi on the Chilpancingo-Filo de Caballos route, were burned about five kilometers before reaching the village on the highway.

And on the road between the towns of La Laguna and Los Morros, a rural police officer was killed and two injured were taken to Chilpancingo for medical attention.

Before 11 in the morning, federal, state and military police were guarding the stretch of the Xochipala-Casa Verde highway where the vehicles were burned at 7:00 am, and the uniformed men began to move to the community of La Laguna.

Villagers of Filo de Caballos, Los Morros and La Laguna ask the intervention of the Army and the State Police to give them security.

The versions indicate that among the armed civilians there are community police of Heliodoro Castillo and a criminal group that operates in the area.

           

LINK: Video from FB w hokey music: https://youtu.be/T88zRvvndUs