Mexican Army Deploys to Acapulco as Cartel Violence Intensifies

Mexico sent more than 4oo soldiers to Acapulco as the region experiences a wave of cartel violence. The government will have approximately 1,300 soldiers on the ground to contain a turf war between the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG).

In recent months, Acapulco has seen a spike in murders tied to an ongoing turf war, Adrian Olivas Franco, Acapulco Public Security Secretary told Mexico Information Agency (AIMX).

“They are carrying out justice by their own hand,” Olivas Franco said.

In recent days, Mexico’s top military brass announced the deployment of 400 soldiers consisting of 200 special forces and 200 parachute infantrymen. In total, the region has 1,300 soldiers tasked with trying to control the raging cartel violence, Infobae reported.

The most recent conflicts are tied to the arrival of CJNG against the Sinaloa Cartel and an independent organization called Acapulco Independent Cartel (CIDA) to the international tourist hotspot.

Since the early 2000s, Acapulco and the state of Guerrero at large has been rocked by waves of cartel violence. The region was historically controlled by factions aligned with the Sinaloa Cartel.

One of the earliest high-profile violent incidents in Acapulco took place in 2005 when members of Los Zetas, previously part of the Gulf Cartel at the time, carried out attacks against law enforcement as part of their strategy to destabilize the Sinaloa Cartel.

On August 2, 2005, the then deputy director of the Guerrero Ministerial Police Julio Carlos Lopez Soto died outside a restaurant at the hands of Los Zetas, Infobae reported. Days after the murder, gunmen carried out a grenade attack on the state police building in Puerto Marques. Then-Governor Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo was quoted as claiming that he did not want to, nor was he able to fight cartels.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “C.P. Mireles” from Tamaulipas.”