Three cartel attacks in less than one week left six law enforcement officers dead and one wounded in the states of Jalisco, Guanajuato, and Mexico.
The first attack occurred Saturday at approximately 6:30pm when Vany Rodríguez Méndez, Public Security Director for Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, was gunned down.
Vany Rodríguez Méndez was shot and killed along with two of his bodyguards by at least three cartel gunmen, according to local reports. The attack also left an unidentified female wounded. Rodríguez Méndez was getting into his duty vehicle when hitmen approached and opened fire. The two bodyguards, identified as officers José Julián de Jesús Cerrillo and José Norberto Juárez, also died from multiple gunshot wounds each.
The next cartel attack occurred Monday morning at approximately 8:00am in Silao, Guanajuato. Municipal Police Commander Erasmo Fuentes was seated in his vehicle at a parking lot when he was shot and killed by two gunmen on a motorcycle.
The most recent attack occurred Tuesday night in Mexico state. Two Tecámac ministerial police officers were shot and killed inside a restaurant. They were working as bodyguards for a prosecutor who was also wounded in the seafood establishment. Security footage shows two shooters seated near the victim party. The gunmen walk to the table and are seen removing pistols from their waistbands. The two bodyguards are shot from behind. As the trio falls to the floor, the gunmen continue to direct fire before fleeing.
The two bodyguards were pronounced dead at the scene and the regional prosecutor, Joel Sánchez Bravo, was transported to a local hospital for treatment. Sánchez Bravo recently received death threats by the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) in the form of a banner displayed from a highway overpass. The CJNG is believed responsible for much of the violence in Jalisco and Guanajuato.
According to government statistics, 26 police officers were killed in Guanajuato this year with another 21 in Jalisco. No current information is available in Mexico state. A June report accounted for 11 officers murdered in 2019. In the border state of Sonora, 17 officers were killed in 2019 to date.
Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce completed work assignments in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year tour in Monterrey, Mexico, for the U.S. Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program. As the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico in charge of the Mexican states of, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas) You can follow him on Twitter or reach him at robertrarce@gmail.com.