Less than 20 hours after Claudia Sheinbaum, Omar García Harfuch, and the national security apparatus visited Veracruz, a wave of violence erupted in the north and south of the state.
Three murders, a robbery, a lawyer kidnapped, Molotov cocktail explosions, and a massive police mobilization following an attack on security personnel.
This afternoon, members of the Navy, the National Guard, and the state police launched a high-profile operation after alleged members of a criminal cell attacked police officers in Tihuatlán, in northern Veracruz.
The incident occurred during the seizure of a warehouse located at kilometer 8 of the Poza Rica-Tihuatlán highway, an operation that utilized drones and helicopters.
Details of the operation’s outcome have not yet been released: it is unknown whether there were any arrests or injuries, or what was seized inside the building.
The first armed attack occurred last Thursday in the southern municipality of Coatzacoalcos, where a man was shot and killed in the Francisco Villa neighborhood, at the corner of Francisco Villa and Canal streets.
That same Thursday, unidentified individuals threw Molotov cocktails from a car at two homes in the Remes neighborhood of Boca del Río. One of the devices struck a house on Camelias Street, between Ordaz and Olmedo streets, around 9:00 a.m. The other, thrown from a car at the same time, landed at house number 315 on the same street.
The violence continued that Thursday, as an armed attack in the Heriberto Kehoe subdivision of Poza Rica, following an intense security operation, resulted in the kidnapping of a restaurant owner and the burning of his home. Neighbors revealed that the victim was Eder Santini, owner of the “Bocholos” pizzeria, who remains missing.
On Friday, the day of Sheinbaum’s visit, another violent incident occurred in Acayucan, in southern Veracruz, when two businesses were destroyed by fire. The State Attorney General’s Office is investigating the incidents as possible acts of arson.
The first fire occurred in Barrio Nuevo, at the intersection of Comonfort and Francisco I. Madero streets, while the second took place on Hidalgo Street, in the heart of the city, at a store selling backpacks, handbags, and toys.
Near Acayucan, in the neighboring municipality of Sayula de Alemán, on Friday, family members, activist groups, and lawyers’ organizations protested in front of the Comprehensive Justice Administration Unit (UIPJ) to demand the whereabouts of criminal lawyer Juan Carlos Bibiano Martínez, who has been kidnapped.
The protesters also demanded that the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) immediately activate search protocols to locate the man, who also worked as a driver for taxi number 112 in Sayula de Alemán.
The violence escalated on Saturday, resulting in two murders in Espinal, as well as the armed carjacking of a vehicle carrying faculty and staff from the Technological Institute of Álamo.
In Espinal, the events occurred in the community of Bugambilias, where an armed group attacked Fabián “N,” the driver of taxi number 56, who died instantly from gunshot wounds. In the same attack, a woman identified as Ángela “N” was wounded and later died at the Entabladero hospital due to the severity of her injuries.
Also today in northern Veracruz, but in the community of Xoyotitla, belonging to the municipality of Álamo, 75 kilometers from Espinal, staff from the Higher Technological Institute of Álamo Temapache (ITSAT) were violently robbed of an official vehicle.
ITSAT faculty and administrative staff were intercepted by an armed group at the intersection of the Tampico-Tuxpan federal highway and robbed of the vehicle and their belongings.
Before the end of Saturday, an armed attack on the Instituto Tecnológico Boulevard, near the Oaxaqueña neighborhood in the southern municipality of Cosoleacaque, resulted in the death of the driver of taxi 1357.
According to reports from the State Police, two men on a motorcycle pulled alongside the taxi driver and opened fire.
Source: latinus.us
