Over 30 killed, found dead around Mexico

"At least 19" were reported to have died or been found dead in apparent criminal incidents around Mexico on 19 March, including 10 suspected gangsters shot dead by police in a gun fight in Estado de México in central Mexico. Federal and state police shot dead 10 or perhaps more members of the cartel La Familia Michoacana in a gun battle that day in the district of Otzoloapan. In the northern state of Chihuahua however suspected gangsters killed two federal policemen after shooting at a patrol car, Proceso reported. Victims that day also included a federal policeman shot dead in the northern district of Monclova, and two gunmen and a soldier killed in a gun fight in the district of Apatzingán in Michoacán. On 20 March police and troops shot dead three suspected criminals, responding to gunfire in the east-coast district of Actopan in the state of Veracruz, Proceso reported. These were among at least 11 reported killed or found dead on 20 March for violence around the country, Proceso reported. A policeman was additionally shot dead that day on a road between the north-eastern cities of Victoria and Monterrey, apparently by gunmen who drove past after he stopped another car for speeding, Milenio reported. The daily also reported the provisional detention of all municipal policemen in the districts of Córdoba and Fortín de las Flores in the state of Veracruz, as part of the extraordinary and ongoing security operations dubbed Veracruz Seguro. These would have to sit "confidence" tests used elsewhere in Mexico to assure the personal and professional integrity of policemen; many policemen fail these tests. The governor of Veracruz Javier Duarte de Ochoa said naval and state police were provisionally assuring the security of the two districts, Milenio reported.