At least 12 people died in a suspected clash between criminal gangs in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced Wednesday.
The clash took place in the village of Las Tunas, where five charred bodies were found Tuesday according to the state attorney's office.
“We presume, without having all the information, that this is a clash between criminal gangs. So far, 12 deaths have been confirmed
,” the Mexican president said during his daily press briefing, without specifying whether this toll included the five deaths on Tuesday.
He added that law enforcement was carrying out an operation in the difficult-to-access area and that more information would be communicated during the day.
420,000 murders since 2006
According to local media, the clash pitted the gangs of La Familia Michoacana and those of Los Tlacos, who are vying for control of the area.
According to analyst David Saucedo, the rise in violence in the region results from attempts by La Familia Michoacana, which dominates the neighboring state of Michoacan, to encroach on the state of Guerrero, one of the poorest and most violent in the country.
“It is seeking to expand its territorial base
,” provoking resistance from local criminal groups, he told AFP.
According to official figures, the conflict left 1,890 dead in 2023.
Las Tunas is part of the municipality of San Miguel Totolapan, where a massacre carried out in broad daylight by an armed commando had already left 20 dead in October 2020. The state of Guerrero is known both for its tourist beaches in the Pacific and the violence of the cartels which compete for the cultivation of poppies and the exit routes of narcotics.
Mexican authorities have counted more than 420,000 murders and tens of thousands of disappearances in the country since the end of 2006, the start of a vast anti-drug offensive launched by the president at the time, Felipe Calderon.