43 killed in shoot-out with Mexican drug gang
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 24 May, 2015, 8:28am
UPDATED : Sunday, 24 May, 2015, 8:28am
Reuters in Zamora
Vehicles burn at the ranch after what authorities called a fierce, three-hour battle between federal forces and drug gang gunmen. Photo: AP
Government security forces killed 42 suspected drug cartel henchmen and suffered one fatality in a firefight in western Mexico in one of the bloodiest shoot-outs in a decade of gang violence wracking the country.
National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said one policeman died and another was injured in the three-hour battle on a ranch just inside the Michoacan state border with Jalisco, home of Guadalajara, Mexico's second-biggest city.
It was one of the heaviest death tolls since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office in December 2012 pledging to end years of gangland violence that have claimed more than 100,000 lives since 2007 alone.
Government officials said the 42 killed by security forces near the town of Tanhuato were suspected members of the Jalisco New Generation (JNG) cartel, a gang based in the neighbouring state that has seriously undermined Pena Nieto's pledge.
The gunfight began on Friday after security forces alerted to an "invasion" of the ranch approached the 112-hectare property and were fired upon by armed men, Rubido said. After calling in air and ground support, government forces ground down their opponents with the aid of a helicopter, in the end capturing three suspected gang members and seizing a grenade launcher and 39 guns.
Rubido said officials from the national human rights commission had been sent to the ranch, where the number of dead was the highest in any clash since a controversial incident last June.
Then, the government first reported that 22 gang members were killed in a shoot-out with soldiers in central Mexico. However, subsequent investigations showed that more than half of the dead had been executed, embarrassing the government.
Jalisco is one of the engines of the Mexican economy, but the state's southern border turned into a battleground between the JNG and the Michoacan-based Knights Templars, a gang whose leadership has been shattered over the past 18 months.
Capitalising on the Templars' losses, the JNG has become the biggest threat to the government, killing at least 20 police since March. On May 1, its gunmen shot down an army helicopter in southwestern Jalisco, claiming the lives of six military personnel.
