Gunmen abduct 16 police employees from bus in Chiapas, Mexico
TAPACHULA, Mexico — Assailants tossed at least one explosive device at a police station in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas, police said Wednesday as a massive search continued for 16 police employees abducted at gunpoint on a local highway.
The attacks highlight a new turf battle between cartels for influence over police in the state, which borders Guatemala, and for control of its drug and immigrant trafficking.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed the kidnappings were part of a battle between two gangs, saying, “Nowadays that is the most common thing ... that the groups clash.”
López Obrador said the men worked at a local prison, apparently as guards or administrative staff, though they are employed by the state police.
Police had originally said 14 men were abducted — and that 17 female employees were released — from a bus on Tuesday. But on Wednesday police upped the number of men who were kidnapped to 16.
The apparent spread of cartel conflict to Chiapas would mark an escalation. The state has long experienced clashes over land, ethnicity, politics and religion, but had largely been spared from the drug cartel violence hitting other parts of the country.
The president has taken a nonconfrontational attitude toward the cartels, and on Wednesday said: “They had better release [their captives]. If not, I’m going to tell on them to their fathers and grandfathers.”
Body parts found in Guadalajara belonged to young workers who apparently tried to quit working at a call center run by a drug cartel, officials say.
Also Wednesday, police in the Chiapas city of Tapachula, near the Mexico-Guatemala border, said two patrol vehicles were damaged in the explosion outside a police station late Tuesday. There was no immediate information on who tossed the explosive, which appeared to have been homemade.
More than 1,000 state and federal law enforcement officers conducted a land and air search for the missing police employees, who were forced from the bus by gunmen earlier Tuesday.
A video of the abducted police employees was posted on social media Wednesday. In it, one of the victims said the abductors were demanding the resignation of at least three state police officials, including the second-in-command of the force. One of the cartels operating in Chiapas has accused the police officials of favoring a rival gang.
The men in the video did not show any obvious signs of mistreatment and did not appear to be bound.
The police employees were traveling by bus to Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital of Chiapas, when they were intercepted by several trucks carrying gunmen.
The women on the bus were released and the men were taken away.
The abduction occurred on the highway between Ocozocoautla and Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Two men who near the scene were detained by police for questioning.
Violence in the Mexican border region with Guatemala has escalated in recent months amid a territorial dispute between the Sinaloa cartel, which has dominated the area, and the Jalisco New Generation cartel.
On June 19, a confrontation between the military and presumed members of organized crime left a National Guard officer and a civilian dead in Ocozocoautla, near the site of Tuesday’s kidnapping.
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