Michoacan: Security forces create shield after CJNG Zamora commando attack

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat   Reforma

About 400 elements of the Michoacán Police, the National Guard and the Army installed a series of vehicle inspection posts at the access to Zamora, on the roads from the Municipalities of La Piedad and Sahuayo, and de la Barca, Jalisco, reported military sources.

The checkpoints were placed, among other points, in the Zamora-Jacona highways, in Morelos Avenue, and on the road that goes to Morelia.

Yesterday morning a group of armed men, allegedly members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), entered Zamora and caused a scene of shootings in different areas of the city and the abduction of at least two people.

According to Army commanders, troops from that institution attended a dozen citizen complaints about the presence of armed men aboard at least 15 trucks.

The sources told REFORMA that in coordination with the Michoacán and Zamora Police, in addition to the National Guard, troops implemented an operation to locate the trucks with the armed men, who allegedly fled on the state highway 37, which has an intersection, at the height of Ecuandureo, towards La Piedad and La Barca.

The preliminary balance of the irruption was two houses shot, three more burned, two people allegedly abducted and a man injured by gunfire.

Zamora is a city disputed by members of the CJNG and Los Viagras, which are a split from La Familia Michoacana and Los Caballeros Templarios.

Last May, Zamora recorded a streak of violence that left a balance of 10 executed in seven days, including four municipal agents. Last August CJNG dismembered and hanged 19 persons from a Zamora bridge.

After the emergence of the CJNG in Zamora in May, the Government of Michoacán sent 350 state police to that area, which joined the 250 federals that were deployed in that city.