Juarez: Troops Return After 10 Killed in Day

Representatives of the state attorney general’s office in Chihuahua announced the return of the Mexican military, which will join forces with federal, state, and municipal police to quell local cartel violence.

The reactivation of military patrols was announced by state Attorney General César Augusto Peniche on May 8, after a weekend of cartel attacks northwest of the state capital of Chihuahua left eight dead. Breitbart Texas reported on these deadly attacks, which occurred on Sunday morning in the community of Ignacio Zaragoza and the municipality of Gómez Farías. The violence over the weekend was followed by a bloody Monday in Ciudad Juarez that resulted in 10 cartel-related killings in a 24-hour period, according to La Jornada.

The joint military and police patrols will take place in Ciudad Juarez, the city of Chihuahua, and the municipality of Parral, which is experiencing a spike in cartel activity. Parral is located approximately 140 miles south of the state capital.

The violence is attributed to hostilities between the Juarez and Sinaloa Cartels and aligned criminal groups. Both are engaged in a struggle for valuable smuggling routes and lucrative street-level narcotics markets.

The military deployment is being conducted to avoid the record-breaking violence that hit Juarez in previous years. For 2018, Ciudad Juarez has registered a total of 241 homicides, according to local reporting.

In 2008, the Mexican federal government was required to deploy troops to Ciudad Juarez due to the shocking number of killings during the war between the Juarez and Sinaloa Cartels.

Cartel-Related Homicides by Year

2008 – 1,578

2009 – 2,643

2010 –3,075

Source: El Pais

Ciudad Juarez Mayor Armando Cabada Alvídrez said he did not request military assistance and believes the patrols are unnecessary, according to local reports. He said that although Monday was a difficult day, the majority of victims were tied to organized crime.

Breitbart Texas recently reported on intensified cartel attacks on police elements in Chihuahua. The strikes caused police to be placed on the highest alert and take extra security measures for safety purposes.

Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment out of the U.S. consulate general in Monterrey, Mexico, working for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.) You can follow him on Twitter. He can be reached at robertrarce@gmail.com