Guanajuato Sinks into Violence

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Eluniversal

Despite the arrival of the National Guard to the state and the security operations, organized crime remains in the streets generating ever more deaths, says Specialist.

Neither with the operation of the Timón "coup" nor with the arrival of federal forces and the official strategy of the fight against huachicoleo, has stopped the violence in Guanajuato; Organized crime remains in the streets and the presence of the National Guard in the state has not made a difference.

Public security specialists report that the entity was placed on the cusp for violence and homicides at the hands of criminal groups that commit crimes without taking into account the presence of the National Guard. Nothing frightens them.

The killings and diversification of crimes continue. The Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel - of local origin - seeks to preserve the domain, while the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) seeks control of the square for its illegal activities.

The absence of a regional security strategy that goes beyond armoring in the border areas of Michoacán and Jalisco, where criminal organizations move and strengthen, is evident.

"There is coordination in the limits of the states, but there is no structure of a criminal policy planning that allows to identify the critical points, not only in the limits, but in all the entities," said researcher Jéssica María Vega, of Department of Social Studies of the University of Guanajuato.

From January to July 2019, 1,568 malicious homicides and eight feminicides were recorded; In the last month there were 185 and three femicides, according to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP).

In the first seven months of 2018 there were 1,427 wrongful killings and 12 femicides (in July alone there were 224 homicides and two femicides); while in the same period of 2017, 611 homicides and 12 femicides were investigated (of them 87 homicides and two feminicides in July).

                               Image above published in September 2018 issue of Newsweek

Discreet presence:

In the first week of July, 2,100 elements of the National Guard arrived in Guanajuato, a priority state for the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) for its high rates of violence, as did Jalisco and Michoacán.

In the early days, the elements were seen in squares in actions of proximity to citizens and in public events and conducted patrols, along with state forces.

El Universal made a three-day tour of  municipalities of Celaya, Villagrán, Salamanca, Irapuato and Silao, during the day and late-night, the presence of the Guard was not seen, but elements of the public security forces of the state and federal police, in caravans of three and four patrols; in some cases with artillery units.

On July 2, when the federal government announced the establishment of the National Guard in the priority states, 13 people were killed in Silao, Salamanca, Irapuato, León, Acámbaro and Pénjamo; most of the victims were dismembered or with the coup de grace. On that date they ambushed and killed the state's drug prosecutor, Francisco Javier "N".

The violence was not contained. A month later, on August 2, an armed command entered the quarters of the Municipal Police of Valle de Santiago, shot five detainees and released another; that same night subjects threw Molotov bombs at the offices of the prosecutor of that demarcation.

On that same date, Celaya tortillarias demanded security and announced the closure of establishments for fear of a band of extortionists; 3 days later, gunmen shot three women in a tortilleria.

On August 10 in Yuriria, elements of the Guard faced an armed command in the Loma de Zempoala community; one of the officers died and three armed civilians; At night, another armed group shot 8 people in a billiard hall in the Che Guevara neighborhood of Irapuato, five meters away from the municipal police delegation.

With terror:

The connection with more bloodthirsty criminal behaviors, with deaths of collateral victims, robberies, kidnappings and extortion has changed the pace of life in Salamanca, Irapuato and Celaya, where businesses disappear and families are locked in their homes before nine in the night.

“How good that the National Guard is coming!” Luisa celebrated on July 2 in a conversation with another woman in the main square of Silao; that day near their home, in the Independence neighborhood, they seven dismembered bodies were strewn along the roadway.

They say they are scared. "So many dead everywhere," she laments. They know of neighbors who have moved to other colonies, even some preferred to go to León.

In Salamanca, the municipal government celebrated the arrival of the Guard on July 2. On boulevards still today persist  spectacular signs in which the corporation is welcomed: “Salamanca: Safe and United. Welcome to the National Guard, ” cite the signs with the image of those informed.

      This city received 120 troops that coordinate with the Navy, Military Police and State Forces.

Salamanca has been the scene of several attacks, among them, the attack on the bar La Playa Men's Club Salamanca, the morning of March 9, where 15 people died and another when she was treated in a hospital.

In the count carried out by E Universal, last July 193 people lost their lives, most of them in Irapuato, Salamanca, Acámbaro, Celaya, León, Santiago Valley, Guanajuato capital, Pénjamo, Apaseo el Alto, Salvatierra and Tarimoro.

The trend is similar in August even though the huachicoleo was reduced, according to the federal government's speech. In the last two years, the state prosecutor's office identified the theft of fuels from the Pemex pipelines as the cause of 85% of the homicides in the entity.

Industrial Corridor in the Spotlight:

The dispute between the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel and the CJNG has led to other crimes in recent months, such as robbery with violence and extortion of merchants in the State Industrial Corridor, especially in Celaya, Salamanca and Villagrán.

This intimidation of small and medium-sized merchants has resulted in the closure of businesses, as in the case of the municipality of Celaya, where dozens of tortillerías lowered their curtains since last August 2 for fear of extortionists.

“The closing of tortillerías is impressive! In addition, I insist, if we take tortillas out of this country, we are left without a country, ” says researcher Jéssica María Vega.

In Villagrán, last March more than a 1,000 elements of the National Navy, Army, National Gendarmerie and the Public Security Forces of the State and the Criminal Investigation Agency entered the Santa Rosa de Lima community , base of the cartel of the same name, commanded by José Antonio Yépez "El Marro", linked to the theft of hydrocarbons.

Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo described the action as a Timon "coup." "The rule of law was restored," he celebrated at the time. For the state government the acronyms, "brands" or names of criminal groups are "unmentionable", as they agreed in the Security Council, "not to advertise them."

The cartels promote themselves in bloodthirsty events, in social networks and in everyone's view; in videos they challenge each other, show their powerful weaponry, identify themselves, exhibit and even realize the territories in which they act.

“These groups do terrorism; they are confronted with greater lethality and use various resources to generate panic, such as the dissemination of videos, attacks on the State, massacres in amusement centers and police bases, ”said Security specialists.

“They throw corpses in rivers and graves, hang them on bridges, cut them apart and place them in bags in visible spaces; they do everything to scare the population, ”says Jéssica María Vega.

The specialist says that in the entity there are horror situations, especially in the cities of the Industrial Corridor, which goes from San Francisco del Rincón to Celaya and in the surrounding municipalities.

“Celaya, neighboring municipalities and also Irapuato, all of the [Industrial] Corridor, but particularly Irapuato, due to its proximity, and Salamanca, suffer [violence]; because there are increasingly complex, lethal and aggressive structures that are looking for new spaces, because they do not have the resources that used to invest in them, ” says the researcher at the University of Guanajuato.

Note: Most of the outstanding incidents mentioned in this article have been posted here on BB.