Explosion Injures A Police Officer Responding To Report Of Body, Causes Terror In Irapuato, Guanajuato

By "El Huaso" for Borderland Beat

An investigative police officer (AIC - Agencia de Investigación Criminal) was injured by an explosive device after responding to reports of a body inside an empty house yesterday afternoon in Irapuato, Guanajuato. According to David Saucedo, the explosive was related to the fight between criminal groups in the region.

Local journalist Gerardo Hernández captured the events while livestreaming on Facebook for his own outlet, TV Consecuencias. Hernández was covering the police response to reports of a dismembered body inside a house on Jose Zapata street, in the El Comunal neighborhood of Irapuato when his livestream captured the explosion and aftermath.

According to Milenio, the police had received a call from neighbors alerting them to the presence of the body inside.

The recording shows investigative police entering a house while Mexican army soldiers as well as agents from the State Attorney Generals office guard the neighborhood block. Seconds after the agents disappear inside, a loud explosion is heard and smoke covers the area, shocking the responding officers and triggering screams from onlookers. Security forces who had secured the area and cordoned it off with yellow tape sprang into action, ushering civilians away in case of another explosion.

One of the injured agents, a female investigative police officer is shown being escorted out by soldiers to be assessed for injuries before being speedily evacuated for treatment. Within moments, the area is swarmed with elements of the army, Guardia Nacional, and Irapuato Police. Civilians are also seen carrying children out of their homes as they flee the area. 

A tweet released by the Guanajuato Attorney Generals office stated that one officer and a dog were injured in the event, but will survive. Milenio reported that two officers were injured.

As no one other than the police officers were inside the house during the detonation, it appears that the explosive may have been set to explode as officers responded. 

The use of explosives attracts significant government attention in Mexico, usually provoking a federal response. Their use here against security forces will give the federal government further reason to react with force, probably by increasing army deployments to the region.

As Small Wars Journal researchers note in "USE OF IEDs AND VBIEDs IN MEXICAN CRIME WARS", while cases of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are fairly uncommon in Mexico, many have occurred in the state of Guanajuato, most often related to the ongoing conflict between the Cartel Santa Rosa de Lima (CSRL) and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).

One example of this was in March of 2020, when a car bomb was used in Celaya to injure two Guardia Nacional officers, as reported by Borderland Beat. This attack happened days after CSRL leader José Antonio Yépez Ortiz's ("El Marro") father was captured by security forces.

The state of Guanajuato is currently the most violent state in Mexico by homicide count, with 1,566 so far this year according to SSPC data. This accounts for just over 10% of the nations total homicides. This homicide count is driven by conflict between criminal groups.

According to security analyst David Saucedo, Irapuato is a hotspot of the violence in Guanajuato, currently contested by CJNG and the Sinaloa Cartel. When asked about this event, David Saucedo confirmed to Borderland Beat that this explosion is related to this conflict, while authorities do not know which group was behind this attack.

This attack happens at a time when a staggering 89.7% residents of Irapuato responded that they felt unsafe in the city, according to poll data by Mexico's statistics agency INEGI.

For Borderland Beat's coverage of the video explaining the attack released by criminals the following day, click here.

Warning: Video of explosion and explicit images of a body below this point.

Photos inside the house show a severed head in a cooler and black trash bags, reportedly filled with a dismembered body. Smears of blood stain the tile floor.

Sources: Gerardo Hernández Facebook , FGE Tweet, Milenio, INEGI , Informe de Seguridad Julio 2022, WhatsApp correspondence with security analyst David Saucedo, Small Wars Journal