Elements of the National Guard and Civil Force during an operation in Michoacán. Juan José Estrada Serafín (Cuartoscuro)
The latest confrontations between the Army and drug traffickers have ended the life of a colonel in the mountains of Michoacán, in the town of Barranca Seca.
This is Colonel Héctor Miguel Vargas Carrillo, 49, belonging to the 65th Infantry Battalion, based in Coalcomán, as confirmed by the Secretary of Defense to this newspaper.
In that municipality, the military captured Rosario Israel Montes,
El 22
, one of the operators of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel in the area a few days ago.
Coming from Chihuahua, Vargas Carrillo had not completed a year in the Michoacán detachment, one of the most conflictive areas of Mexico due to the presence of several cartels in permanent dispute over the territory.
The criminal altercation has left several injured, yet to be officially confirmed.
The colonel's battalion was ambushed as it entered this difficult-to-access area, where they were received by heavily armed men who fired at them from various points in the mountains, according to reports.
The uniformed men later received the support of compañeros from Apatzingán.
The place adjoins the town of Aguililla, which supports high levels of crime and deaths.
The soldiers were passing through an area known for the many laboratories in which the drug is cooked before it is distributed.
The military incursions in recent days and the arrest of El 22, as well as Alma Antonia "N", in Aguililla, are being considered as the causes of the revolt that is taking place in this territory and the aggression against the Army.
The woman was arrested in possession of various drugs and she is related to the aggressor they call
Mataguaches
, Lucas Fierros Mora, plaza boss of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel, according to the
Universal
newspaper .
Fierros Mora is accused of murders, kidnappings, extortion and disappearances.
Both are suspects in the kidnapping of five people in La Bocanda, who are still missing.
It is, according to the same newspaper, a farmer, his wife, his grandson and two workers, whose whereabouts have been unknown since December 30.
Other media also detail the recent arrest in the area of Jorge Luis Aguilar Montaño and Cesar Méndez Polvos,
El Charapo
, known criminals in the area, who are already at the disposal of the Prosecutor's Office.
The deadly fight between the military and drug traffickers left a high-ranking victim in the ranks last November, General José Silvestre Urzúa was assassinated in the municipality of Pinos, on the border between San Luis Potosí and Aguascalientes.
He was a coordinator of the National Guard in Zacatecas and lost his life in an armed confrontation with organized crime criminals, where at least four other members of the security forces were also injured in a shootout that lasted for hours.
Another soldier, Colonel José Isidro Grimaldo, has been missing for weeks, as confirmed by the Army on December 17.
Grimaldo was caught when he was traveling by road near the community of Tapalpa, in the western state of Jalisco.
Some reports gave him up for dead days later, but for now, the missing person remains.
He was returning from a break, because his post is in Nuevo Laredo (Tamaulipas), one of the areas with the highest crime rate in Mexico, on the border with the United States.
The last major confrontation between the Army and the drug traffickers occurred on January 5, when Ovidio Guzmán, the son of El Chapo, was arrested in Sinaloa.
The clash, which left the city under fire from bullets and attacks on the population for hours, resulted in the death of 29 people, 10 of them soldiers.
There were also 32 wounded uniformed officers and 21 presumed members of Los Chapitos detained.
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