Elements of the Michoacán State Police were ambushed on Monday morning, while completing an injunction in Aguililla, resulting in the deaths of 14 elements, according to state authorities.
The Secretariat of Public Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) directed the aggression and said to make available to the state government the necessary “human and technological resources”.
The #SSPC condemns the attack in which 14 police officers were killed in Aguililla, Michoacán. We are in communication and we make available to the state government all our human and technological resources to find the aggressors and bring them to justice.
— Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (@SSPCMexico) October 14, 2019
The governor of Michoacán, Silvano Aureoles, said in conference that “no attack on the police will go unpunished and this was a cowardly drunk attack, because they were ambushed in this area of the road.”
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On the cardboard with messages left by the armed men on the officers’ vehicles, the governor said they will have to investigate their authenticity as often these messages are just trying to confuse.
Aureoles Conejo asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office to expedite investigation and find those responsible “whoever they are”, as it did not even rule out the need to investigate the municipal police.
The governor noted that the municipality of Aguililla did not want to sign the collaboration agreement with the state government on security.
“Then there are the consequences of not wanting to sign these agreements because then it does not allow you close real coordination.”
Michoacán is a state hit by the presence of various criminal organizations, whose presence led to the emergence of self-defense groups about six years ago.
On 30 August, a confrontation between two armed groups left nine dead and 11 injured in the village of Tepalcatepec, 75 kilometres from Aguililla.
In the same month, the bodies of 19 people were found in the city of Uruapan, in the center of the state.
The government launched a controversial military offensive against organized crime at the end of 2006 that is noted by human rights specialists and advocates as one of the main causes of increased violence in Mexico.
According to official figures, more than 250,000 murders have been recorded since then, although it does not detail how many cases are linked to the fight against crime.
With Information from AFP.
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