Tapachula— A new episode of attacks on security forces in southern Mexico left one soldier dead on Friday, amid the disputes between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel that have been recurring in that area over the past year.
A second lieutenant of the National Defense Secretariat was shot dead while traveling in a private car on the Tuxtla Gutiérrez-Ocozocoautla highway in the state of Chiapas, confirmed a local prosecutor’s official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make statements. The causes or circumstances of the attack on the officer are unknown at this time. The dispute between the major drug cartels has caused thousands of displaced people, as well as disappearances and murders of people in Chiapas. With the murder of the soldier, there are already at least 13 victims related to the security forces so far this year in that southern state bordering Guatemala. The most recent was the armed attack on three municipal police officers in the municipality of Reforma on the border with the neighboring state of Tabasco. The unit in which the federal agent was traveling received multiple bullet impacts, crashed into a guardrail and finally ended up on fire, explained another official from the prosecutor’s office who also asked not to be named. That stretch of highway has been the scene of multiple clashes between organized crime groups, as well as with authorities. Bodies have appeared hanging and decapitated on vehicle bridges in that area, something that was more common in northern Mexico. In June of last year, 16 state police officers were detained on that same road and later released. Due to the violence, the United States government issued a travel warning last April to avoid the municipality of Ocozocoautla. That same month, two state police officers were shot dead.
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