There was no confrontation, not even a warning. Nor is it possible to defend yourself. They were attacked by surprise. Four high-power guys were shot, in broad daylight, in one of Silao’s busiest shopping malls, Guanajuato.
Luis Fernando, Alexis Edgar and Juan Carlos are the names of the three young elements of the Municipal Public Security Secretariat who last Thursday afternoon were ambushed and gunned down, an assault in which a woman heading to the bank was injured.
Read more: Threats, clashes and 100 murders in a week: the crisis of violence in Guanajuato
The attack was surprising, although there is doubt as to whether any of them could have done anything. Two of the agents, Alexis and Luis Fernando, did not bring their weapons of office despite being in service hours, a situation that is already investigated by the Attorney General’s Office of the State Justice.
Guanajuato has become a more lethal state for the cops. So far this year, 45 agents have been killed and this is not the first time some of them have been gunned down unarmed. This, in the midst of a war between organized crime groups that has caused record violence in the entity.
Juan Carlos, one of three policemen killed only on June 11 in Guanajuato (his surnames and the rest of his personal data is kept under reservation for the safety of his family) was 21 years old, and by December he had graduated from the State Police Academy.
He was less than six months old as an active policeman in the Municipal Public Security Secretariat and was still considered in training.
Alexis Edgar, another of the three murdered officers, was 26 years old and had been on duty for five. Like Juan Carlos, he had graduated from the academy at the age of 21. Finally, Luis Fernando was the oldest of all, at the age of 36, although only three in the municipal corporation.
According to the authorities consulted, none of the three police officers had a negative record. The afternoon of the events, the agents were commissioned to preventive surveillance at the La Joya shopping center, one of the busiest in the municipality.
The ambush in the square
The official part of the Attorney General’s Office indicates that the events occurred shortly after 18 hours outside the aforementioned shopping center located on Avenida La Joya corner with 5 de Mayo street. The municipal police were making a surveillance rondin, one on foot and two in a van.
According to witnesses, the assailants entered the parking lot aboard a pick-up van and from several metres away opened fire in the direction of the patrol and police on foot. It was just a few seconds in which the assailants are estimated to have fired about half a hundred shots.
The Prosecutor’s Office indicated that two of the agents were left inside the patrol, while the third was lying outside the cinema of the Cinépolis network, located in the commercial square.
The news part also reports a woman who was hit by one of the assailants’ shots on her way to the bank. His state of health until yesterday afternoon was stable and he was in hospital.
As is noted in the facts, the assault against the policemen was a direct attack. An ambush. There were no previous threats or confrontation. The policemen failed to respond to the fire as two of them did not carry their weapons in charge.
The municipal government attributed the direct attack to a revenge related to increased security in the municipality, and various surveillance operations.
However, the consultant and security expert at the bank, David Saucedo, considered that the aggression is much more related to the “war” maintained by organized crime groups over the dispute of territories.
In the case of Silao in specific, behind the last attacks would be present the Cartel of Santa Rosa de Lima that tries to destabilize the municipality controlled by the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). “Attacking the municipal police, which due to the state of vulnerability is subject to the power of organized crime, is a message to that criminal organization,” the expert said.
Vulnerable and unarmed police
At least 45 elements of the state and municipal police in Guanajuato have been killed so far this year. This makes the state by far the deadliest in the country. According to a count of the organization Cause in Common, 1 in 6 police killings in the country have occurred precisely in Guanajuato.
Compared to 2019, the figure of Police killed in Guanajuato in 2020 has soared 167 percent. The entity went from 17 policemen killed between January and June last year to the 45 already mentioned this year.
⚠️ At least 21 police officers were killed in Mexico this week. They add up to 242 so far this year.
The three levels of government need to ensure them proper training and equipment so that they can perform their jobs in the right way. pic.twitter.com/ohdo0a2Kkt
— Common Cause (@causaencomun) June 5, 2020
In Guanajuato, as in other entities, local police are at a disadvantage in terms of firepower and deployment to organized crime groups. This is exacerbated when two of the most powerful cartels in the country, such as the CJNG and the Lima Santa Rosa Cartel, the latter ally with other criminal organizations, must also be confronted.
But in addition to the above, situations have arisen where policemen are not even armed as happened in the murder at the La Joya de Silao shopping centre. And it’s not the first case.
For example, on January 11th another young policeman who had been a graduate of the academy, Ivan “N”, was killed in an ambush in Silao. The agent also did not carry a firearm as his license was pending. It was still working because of the urgency of the municipality to have a greater deployment.
A report published by the local am newspaper revealed that in at least a dozen of the state’s most populous municipalities it was common to see police officers patrolling without guns, or some other part of their team.
“Guanajuato is the state of the highest number of police killings and has the highest rate of defection among its hosts. Cops do not have the weapons, vests, equipment, salaries, benefits to fulfill the task of protecting citizens,” Saucedo said.
In the case of Juan, Alexis and Luis, the municipal police ambushed last Thursday, the state Prosecutor’s Office is inquiring why these uniforms did not bring their weapons, and clarify whether it was a license that was not ready, lack of equipment or some other type of negligence.
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