Clash leaves six gunmen and one soldier dead in western Mexico

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Six gunmen were killed, and a soldier resulted from a gun battle this Friday afternoon in an indigenous town in the western Mexican state of Michoacán.

The State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) reported that the armed clash occurred around 16:30 hours (21.30 GMT) when a military patrol discovered the armed civilian group on a farm in the Purepecha indigenous village Tarecuato, in the municipality of Tangamandapio.

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One soldier was killed in the scuffle, while six civilians were killed by the military attached to the XXI Military Zone, based in Morelia, capital of Michoacan.

The military also managed the surrender of a seventh alleged hitman, who has been reported to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), trying to determine which criminal group the armed commando belongs to.

The soldiers confiscated eight assault rifles, more than 30 magazines, 200 useful cartridges, tactical vests, ballistic helmets, two vehicles, and paramilitary clothing.

The FGR is investigating which criminal group the armed commando belongs to, given that in the region, the criminal organizations operating are the Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG), La Nueva Familia Michoacana Cartel – with its armed wing Los Viagras -, Los Caballeros Templarios Cartel and Los Reyes Cartel.

These criminal organizations are engaged in a bloody war for control of the production and trafficking of drugs such as marijuana and methamphetamine. They also dispute the kidnapping industry and extortion of merchants and farmers.

The Government of Michoacán sent a hundred State Police agents to Tarecuato to coordinate with the Mexican Army and search in Tangamandapio for more accomplices of the slain assassins.

Tangamandapio borders the municipality of Zamora, the latter considered one of the most violent in the country, which forced the Mexican government to deploy more than two thousand National Guard and Mexican Army agents to the region.