Monday 19 November 2012

Over a dozen killed in Mexico in a day

Gun fights between state forces and presumed criminals in two districts of Mexico killed nine including a soldier on 18 November, while 10 policemen were arrested for suspected collusion with organized crime, Proceso reported. The shootouts occurred in the northern district of Indé and in Ocampo in the north-western state of Michoacán; in Ocampo 10 local policemen were arrested after the shootout, including the district police chief and deputy-head. A gang boss or perhaps local representative of one of the cartels - dubbed El Constans - was killed in this shootout. Three men were separately shot dead on a road near Ciudad Juárez by the US frontier; 150 bullets were fired into them from AK-47 assault rifles, Proceso reported. The three were identified as from the nearby district of Guadalupe, and were driving a car without a licence plate. A university lecturer was separately shot dead in the district of Chihuahua on 18 November; he was named as Adolfo Zuñiga de la Torre, a member of the chemistry department at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Proceso reported. A policeman died in hospital in the northern city of Saltillo, after he was injured in a car chase and shootout with suspects in that city, Milenio reported on 19 November, citing Notimex.