CJNG Allegedly Behind Attack on Guatemalan President’s Protection Detail Near Mexican Border

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Sedena soldiers captured the remaining attackers after they fled across the border into Mexico.

A Mexican identified as an alleged member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) was injured after being repelled after the shootout described as an attack on the security of Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei.

According to the EFE agency, the injured subject is Josué López Velásquez, who has been located as part of the group of assassins who committed the attack and, after confronting the military, fled towards the Mexican border. The alleged member of the CJNG is the man shot in the legs. Local authorities arranged for him to be transferred for medical treatment at a regional hospital.

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei was 2 kilometers away from the attack on the security perimeter protecting him during a visit to the town of La Laguna, in Jacaltenango.

Giamattei was not near where the confrontation occurred, but the military institutions specified that everything that happens within the security circles of the president and his entourage are considered a threat that should not be minimized. Giammattei had traveled by helicopter to Huehuetenango on a work tour to promote the products grown by the inhabitants of La Laguna so that they can be marketed. "Local products are being promoted in Huehuetenango, to support the small producer," said the official, who shared with the neighbors, according to the official agency.

Preliminary reports indicated that an operation was deployed as part of the President's tour in a section of La Laguna, in Jacaltenango, when they detected a suspicious vehicle manned by heavily armed hitmen who were stopped. The passengers of the vehicle opened fire on the security elements, initiating an exchange of fire in which a person of Mexican origin was injured.

“Elements of the Army stopped them for a routine review. The passengers of the vehicle opened fire on the security elements, initiating an exchange of fire in which a person of Mexican origin was injured,” the Government of Guatemala specified. “Four Guatemalans who had managed to cross the border and abandoned two rifle grenades were apprehended,” the authorities added.

Agents from the Secretariat of National Defense of Mexico (Sedena) immediately coordinated to find those responsible. The Guatemalan military authorities indicated that there are four more detainees, presumably part of the same cell of aggressors, who are originally from the Central American country.

Josué López Velásquez, the alleged leader of the CJNG cell in Guatemala responsible for the attack was shot in the leg and captured after 4 other Guatemalan attackers fled.

This group abandoned López Velázquez along with a rifle grenade on the Huehuetenango highway. This last demarcation is located 80 kilometers from the border with Chiapas. The Sedena has not offered reports on the arrest.

In the next few hours, the authorities plan to offer a more complete report on the case, but initially, it has been indicated that Josué López Velásquez would be the leader of the faction that confronted the soldiers. Investigative operations continue by security forces from Guatemala and Mexico, in order to collect the necessary information to determine the intentions of this group of people.

On the Chiapas border, the seizure of a portable radio was also reported. The reporters who cover the presidential source did not immediately notice these events, since Alejandro Giammattei was about two kilometers away from the place where the shooting occurred.

The presence of the CJNG in Guatemala has already been reported previously, as the United States Department of State indicates that the Mexican criminal group coordinates its interests to obtain drugs with Los Huistas in Huehuetenango, where the local cartel serves as a link for the transfer of drugs. narcotic produced from South America.

The Los Huistas gang in Guatemala is said to be a primary trafficking support network for both the CJNG and Sinaloa Cartels.

The United States offers a reward of $10 million dollars for their top leader, Eugenio Darío Molina López, who also serves the illegal economy of the Sinaloa Cartel. The consolidated network of the Huistas began in 1990 and was established in 2010. In addition to the alliance in Central America, the so-called four-letter cartel has shown its interests in Alta Verapaz and beyond the border in Chiapas, such as Mesilla. In September of last year, the CJNG threatened the Guatemalan National Civil Police for the alleged theft of a drug shipment.

Sources ABC News, Infobae, Guatemalan Government, Infobae