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MEXICO CITY — Hundreds of protesters, angered by the jailing of two alleged drug cartel members, besieged a state capital in southern Mexico, battling police and nationwide guard troops, taking authorities staff hostage, and crashing an armored automobile by the gates of the legislature.
The violence in Chilpancingo, the capital of the southern state of Guerrero, was an unusually stark problem to the federal government by an organized-crime group. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has sought to interrupt with the U.S.-backed “struggle on medicine,” establishing social packages to lure individuals away from narcotics-trafficking gangs. However the demonstrators’ skill to paralyze the town of about 300,000 individuals underscored the pervasive grip of crime gangs in lots of elements of the nation.
Two alleged leaders of Los Ardillos — the Squirrels — had been arrested by state police final week and indicted on drug and weapons prices Monday. That triggered the huge march by residents of villages round Chilpancingo. Los Ardillos is one in every of 16 crime teams in Guerrero that battle over drug-trafficking, kidnapping and extortion rackets, in keeping with Protection Ministry paperwork cited by the every day Milenio. The state is a high producer of opium poppy, the primary ingredient of heroin.
After greater than 24 hours of chaos, the Guerrero state authorities, led by López Obrador’s Morena occasion, defused the violence Tuesday afternoon. The demonstrators freed 13 hostages — state cops, nationwide guard troops and civilian authorities officers — and ended their blockade of the toll highway from Mexico Metropolis to the vacationer resort of Acapulco.
Photos of 1000’s of demonstrators converging on the Guerrero state capital shocked even Mexicans accustomed to the intense violence of organized-crime teams. Information organizations estimated that between 2,000 and 5,000 individuals from communities managed by Los Ardillos swarmed Chilpancingo on Monday. Demonstrators seized an armored safety automobile referred to as a “Rhino” from state police and rammed it by the gates in entrance of the state legislature as panicked authorities employees fled.
Safety forces hurled tear fuel canisters on the protesters, who had been armed with rocks, sticks and machetes. However the 500 police and nationwide guard troops had been compelled to retreat.
Nobody was reported killed. However the photos known as to thoughts the 2019 seizure of the northwestern metropolis of Culiacán by gunmen after authorities tried to arrest Ovidio Guzmán López, son of the famed drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán.
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“At this time criminals don’t profit solely from a daunting arsenal, however a terrifying capability to deliver individuals into the streets and confront safety forces,” the left-wing every day La Jornada editorialized. It accused federal and state authorities of getting deserted the impoverished area, permitting crime teams to “create a social base.”
Mexico’s secretary of public safety, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, mentioned Tuesday that the demonstration was led by members of Los Ardillos. Officers mentioned some villagers may need been compelled to participate. López Obrador mentioned the federal government opted for a low-key response to keep away from bloodshed. “In the event that they [the crime organization] threaten you and make you take part, act with prudence, with warning,” he urged residents in televised remarks Tuesday morning. “Don’t confront the leaders of those teams, keep quiet, however don’t allow them to manipulate you.”
But the siege confirmed how empowered crime teams have grow to be in lots of elements of Mexico, the place some command a big following.
“What was totally different about this was the scope of the entire thing,” mentioned Falko Ernst, Mexico analyst for the Worldwide Disaster Group. The protesters “took over not only a complete metropolis, authorities installations and a serious freeway in Mexico, however additionally they took public officers hostage.”
State authorities mentioned they gained the discharge of the hostages in talks with the demonstrators in change for public works initiatives.
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Chilpancingo’s mayor, Norma Otilia Hernández, is battling a scandal over her alleged ties to organized-crime figures. Mexican media just lately aired a video of her having breakfast at a restaurant with an alleged chief of Los Ardillos, apparently after she took workplace in 2021. Final month, in entrance of a church in Chilpancingo, authorities discovered the stays of seven individuals — together with 5 males’s heads within the trunk of a automotive.
The stays had been accompanied by a be aware addressed to the mayor: “I’m nonetheless ready for that second breakfast you promised me whenever you sought me out.”
The mayor, a member of the president’s occasion, has urged the lawyer basic to analyze the video. “There wasn’t any cope with criminals,” she advised reporters.
Gabriela Martínez contributed to this report.
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