Global Courant
Gunmen kidnapped 14 state police officers in southern Mexico, sparking a heavy deployment of federal and local troops
By means ofÉDGAR H. CLEMENTE Associate Press
MEXICO CITY — Gunmen abducted 14 state police officers in southern Mexico on Tuesday, sparking a heavy deployment of federal and local troops, authorities said.
The Minister of Security and Civil Defense in Chiapas state said in a statement that the 14 officers were all men and an air and ground operation was underway to locate them.
A state police official, who requested not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the officers were heading to the Chiapas capital in a personnel carrier truck when they were intercepted by several trucks carrying gunmen.
The women in the vehicle were released while the men were taken away, the official said.
The kidnapping took place on the highway between Ocozocoautla and Tuxtla Gutiérrez.
Violence in Mexico’s border region with Guatemala has escalated in recent months amid a territorial dispute between the Sinaloa Cartel – which dominated the area – and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
During a tour of Chiapas on Friday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador minimized violence in the area, saying there is “general peace and tranquility” in the state.
The day before the president’s visit, in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, an official of the Attorney General’s Office was shot and her companion was killed. The officer was seriously injured and taken to hospital.
In addition, on June 19, a confrontation between the military and suspected members of organized crime left part of the National Guard and a civilian dead in Ocozocoautla, near the site of Tuesday’s abduction.
