ARMED CONVOY OF CARTEL MEMBERS ATTEMPTED TO TAKE OVER A MEXICAN TOWN, 22 KILLED, OTHERS KIDNAPPED
Villa Union is a small town of about 6,000 in Mexico which is located 25 miles from the Texas border.
Over the weekend, a convoy of trucks, some with .50 caliber machine guns mounted in the back, invaded the town and engaged in a shootout with police that lasted an hour. The death toll from the attack stands at 22 people. Sixteen of those were cartel members, two were civilians, and four were police. Miguel Angel Riquelme Solis, the Governor of the Mexican state of Coahuila, said Cartel del Noreste made frequent attempts to enter the region:
“Organized crime, specifically the Cartel del Noreste, tries to get into Coahuila every day at some point, in one of its areas,” he said, adding, “Today they got in by force and with a contingent that is not like anything we have seen in a long time.”
But “we won’t allow organized crime to come to the area,” he said.
“Many years ago they came in with impunity,” Solis said. “They came into our cities and municipalities and nothing happened. Not nowadays. This was a forceful response.”
Local residents captured video of the convoy entering the town: “These are not common civilians, it is terrorism and as such should be treated…”
State police arrived in their own trucks and surrounded the town:
There was a massive shootout. You can hear the shots being fired in the background:
After it was over the state governor toured the scene:
This clip shows some of the damage to city hall as well as a few of the cartel trucks that have been shot to pieces.
The AP points out that this is part of a pattern in Mexico:
Mexico’s homicide rate has increased to historically high levels this year. After a string of massacres, critics have charged that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government does not have a coherent security strategy.
López Obrador was scheduled to meet on Monday with about 30 relatives of the nine women and children, all dual U.
S.-Mexican citizens, killed by gunman from the Juarez cartel in the border state of Sonora in November.
President Obrador’s stated approach to cartel violence is “hugs not bullets,” but that doesn’t seem to be working out too well. Last month another cartel with a very similar convoy took over a small town after one of El Chapo’s sons was arrested. Police eventually had to release the son to avoid an ongoing gun battle in the middle of town. Two weeks later one of the police officers believed to have been involved in the raid was murdered in broad daylight by cartel members.
While Obrador is asking for more time for his “hugs” plan to work, President Trump suggested in a recent interview that he would consider designating the cartels as terror groups.
But Mexico has no intention of allowing Americans into the country to fight the cartels. Friday, the day before the attack in Villa Union, President Obrador said, “Armed foreigners cannot intervene in our territory. We will not allow that.”
Mexican drug cartel gunmen kidnapped locals after weekend bloodbath
This article was sourced from NYpost
The drug cartel gunmen who staged an hour-long attack on a Mexican town near the Texas border kidnapped locals to help lead them out of town — even ambushing at least one hearse headed to a funeral, according to local reports.
Four “minors” who were taken by the gunmen were also rescued by security forces, Mexican newspaper Proceso reported Monday.
A total of 16 gunmen and four police officers were killed in the carnage that began around 11:45 a.m. Saturday when a convoy of cartel trucks stormed into the city of Villa Union in the state of Coahuila, Governor Miguel Angel Riquelme said, according to Proceso.
Two civilians who were abducted were also slain by their captors, bringing the total number of fatalities to 22, Riquelme said.
The two slain civilians were a firefighter and an engineer who worked for the municipality, according to Francisco Contreras, an official in the state security agency. A second firefighter was also reported missing.
It was unclear from the Proceso report if all 22 people were killed Saturday or if some of the gunmen were killed by pursuing forces on Sunday.
Vehicles next to the City Hall of Villa Union
AP
A truck marked with the initials C.D.N., that in Spanish stand for Cartel of the Northeast.
AP
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The bloodbath began when the cartel trucks opened fire on the city’s municipal building, which houses the mayor’s office. That move prompted a gunfight between the cartel and security forces — with photos of the aftermath showing the town hall and a pickup truck with Texas plates riddled with bullet holes.
On the driver’s side door of that truck are the letters CDN — Spanish initials for the Cártel del Noreste, or the Cartel of the Northeast.
Government officials confirmed to Proceso that the attackers were members of the CDN, and that there were about 60 assailants involved.
The gunmen fled to Nuevo Laredo after the attack. The hearse was among the vehicles that helped guide the attackers on dirt roads out of the city, according to newspaper Zocalo of Saltillo.
Authorities seized 18 long guns and 17 vehicles, four of them armored, Proceso reported.
The motive for the attack remained unclear Monday. While cartels have been vying for control of northern Mexico smuggling routes, there was no immediate evidence a rival cartel was targeted in Saturday’s attack.
The violence came less than a month after three women and six children with dual American and Mexican citizenship, living in a breakaway Mormon community in the state of Sonora, were slaughtered by cartel gunmen.
Mexican forces vowed to remain in Villa Union for several days to restore calm to the rattled city — and keep the cartel from striking again.
“Solving this issue — which underpins impunity — would have to be the centerpiece of an integrated security strategy,” Falko Ernst, senior Mexico analyst for the non-profit Crisis Group, which seeks to promote peace, told the Associated Press. “But such a thing is yet to be presented by [President] López Obrador and his team.”
“The price of that absence is not least the flaring up of regional conflict scenarios,” he said.
Police officers patrol at a road after fellow officers were killed during an ambush by suspected cartel hitmen in El Aguaje.REUTERS
With Post wires
This article was sourced from Hot Air