López Obrador sought to blame previous administrations for Mexico’s persistent problem of violence. He pledged to continue, saying “we have to go on doing the same things, because it has brought results.” The president has placed tremendous responsibility in the armed forces rather than civilian police for reining in Mexico’s persistently high levels of violence.
While attacks on public officials are not uncommon in Mexico, these come at a time when the López Obrador’s security strategy is being sharply debated. Last month, lawmakers approved López Obrador’s push to transfer the ostensibly civilian National Guard to military control. Mexico’s Congress this week is debating the president’s proposal to extend the military’s policing duties to 2028. The killing of Mendoza brought to 18 the number of mayors slain during the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the number of state lawmakers to eight, according to data from Etellekt Consultores. “A group known as the Tequileros dominated the region for some time it was a group that mainly smuggled and distributed opium, but also engaged in kidnapping, extortion and several killings in the region.” “This act occurred in the context of a dispute between criminal gangs,” Mejia said. Ricardo Mejia, Mexico’s assistant secretary of public safety, said the Tequileros are fighting the Familia Michoacana gang in the region and that the authenticity of the video was being verified. Dozens of soldiers were posted at the entrance to the town. Once they neared the cemetery, several men hoisted the coffin out of the truck and walked with it the waiting grave. By midday, two bodies had already been buried and 10 more empty pits stood waiting.Ī procession of about 100 residents singing hymns walked solemnly behind a truck carrying the coffin of one man killed in the shooting. There were so many victims that a backhoe was brought into the town’s cemetery to scoop out graves as residents began burying their dead Thursday.
Totolapan is geographically large but sparsely populated mountainous township in a region known as Tierra Caliente, one of Mexico’s most conflict-ridden areas.
However, residents said the attack that killed the mayor occurred a few blocks away. The walls of the town hall, which were surrounded by children’s fair rides at the time, were left riddled with bullets. Most of the other victims were believed to be local officials. The Guerrero state security council said gunmen burst into the town hall in the village of San Miguel Totolapan Wednesday and opened fire on a meeting the mayor was holding with other officials.Īmong the dead were Mayor Conrado Mendoza and his father, Juan Mendoza Acosta, a former mayor of the town. Residents began burying the victims even as a video posted on social media showed men who identified themselves as the Tequileros gang claiming responsibility for the mass shooting. SAN MIGUEL TOTOLAPAN, Mexico (AP) - A drug gang shot to death 20 people, including a mayor and his father, in the mountains of the southern Mexico state of Guerrero, officials said Thursday.
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