April 21, 2020: AMLO Asks the Cartels to Stand Down; Mexico’s Most Murderous Day

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Sources

The same day that Mexican President López Obrador asked drug traffickers to “simmer down,” the highest number of homicides in 2020 was recorded.  Mexico already has all the ingredients of the tragedy: kidnappings, enforced disappearances, executions and clandestine graves.  López Obrador asked criminals to think about the pain they cause their mothers.

The epidemic of violence in Mexico seems to have no stop. This week it has been confirmed that March is, so far, the most violent month of 2020. The 3,078 homicide victims accounted for, show the urgency of putting a stop to a scourge that has been increasing in the last decade.

This Monday the record of intentional homicides in the country was broken. According to daily numbers from the National Information Center of the Executive Secretariat of the National Security System (SESNSP), on April 20, 114 crimes were committed nationwide.

With that figure, Monday not only became the most violent in 2020, but also positioned itself as the second bloodiest in the entire presidential term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The first was on December 1, 2018, which recorded 127 people killed.

The breakdown shows that Guanajuato was the entity with the most murders (16 ). In the municipality of Salamanca - a land until three years ago away from the terror of drug violence - an armed group shot four people and left three more wounded.

In the multiple crime that occurred on Monday night, two women, a man and a minor, lost their lives. So far, who or who carried out the attack is unknown.

64 kilometers away, in Comonfort, Guanajuato , the lifeless body of a man was abandoned in the vicinity of a business located on Plaza Juan Aldama and Magisterio streets. While in Irapuato, an armed group murdered a subject who was traveling aboard a car.

The crime ended in a persecution of municipal and criminal personnel. The men are presumed to have been detained by the region's police, however the information has not been confirmed.

In Guanajuato violence is out of control. The confrontation between the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel and that of Santa Rosa de Lima has culminated in massive kidnappings, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, shootings, curfew, clandestine graves, deaths from stray bullets and militarization of some previously prosperous and safe municipalities.

As in Guanajuato, the state of Guerrero counts the corpses by the dozens. The entity registered nine intentional homicides. Among these victims are the thirteen dead left by a 48-hour confrontation, in the municipality of Leonardo Bravo.

On the morning of Sunday, April 19, alert calls began to 911 denouncing the presence of groups of armed civilians in the El Naranjo area , for which elements of the National Guard, the Mexican Army and state police moved to the region.

At the site, the troops were attacked by civilians, so when repelling the attack, the security elements shot down four suspected criminals and two more were arrested. While touring the community, four other bodies were found. During Monday morning, they added five more bodies without life, leaving a figure of 13 dead.

El Naranjo has become the object of a strong struggle between the Southern Cartel and the United Front of Community Police in the state of Guerrero ; however, none of the bodies had the uniform that characterizes the organizations.

Understanding the violence that has hit that area of ​​Guerrero for years is not easy. Faced with the fear of the coronavirus crisis, residents face organized crime.

In Sonora, with seven murders, the bodies of eight people were found early Monday morning in the municipalities of Empalme, Pótam and Guaymas.

The first shooting was reported around 03:00 on the Bellavista pier, where two men instantly lost their lives . According to the facts, they were subjects of approximately 30 years of age.

At 04:15 hours, residents of the Juárez neighborhood made a call to the 911 emergency telephone number to alert of another attack carried out in a point known as El Rizo de Oro. At the site, the authorities found the bodies of three men tied up and with bullet impacts.

In Pótam , territory of the Yaqui indigenous communities, the captain of the Traditional Guard of the town of Vícam was ambushed and killed by a command, Monday morning. At the scene, an injured man was also found.

The violence spread to the Guaymas region , where detonations for armed aggression were reported. In the events, a man was wounded, whom they identified as the brother of an active member of the municipal police. The victim died moments later in a hospital where he was treated for the injuries he received.

After 23:00, a second attack occurred near the Guaymas headquarters. Carlos Caraveo González, 47, was shot in the abdomen and transferred to receive medical attention. Failing to overcome the injuries, he passed away.

There is something even more worrying than the figures and it is the decomposition that is perceived every day in the country. The atrocity of the crimes is joined by images like those of recent weeks in different parts of the country, where amid the crises unleashed by the new coronavirus, organized crime distributes food and launches propaganda.

The most evident show of force began in Tamaulipas. Several Twitter and Facebook profiles released photos of deals in the state. In the images there are several armed men dressed in dark clothes and their faces covered, distributing boxes with food, toilets and cleaning supplies. The boxes bear stickers with the legend “Cartel del Golfo In support of Heroica Matamoros Señor 46 Vaquero”. And next to the letters, the silhouette of a hat.

The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, called this Monday to " lower the violence more", caused by the drug traffickers; However, they ignored it and gave the certainty that the crime does not know of pandemics or of staying at home.

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