President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday confirmed reports that four soldiers were killed in Michoacán on Thursday.
Citing military sources, several Mexican newspapers reported Thursday that four soldiers were killed and nine others were injured in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán after the vehicles in which they traveling set off land mines on a rural road. The soldiers were subsequently attacked with firearms and drones carrying explosives, according to reports.
The El Universal newspaper reported that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) — which has allegedly laid mines in various parts of the Tierra Caliente municipalities of Tepalcatepec and Aguililla — perpetrated the attack. The Ministry of National Defense hasn’t publicly commented on the incident.
López Obrador was asked about the events in Michoacán at his Friday morning press conference.
After a reporter noted that four soldiers were killed and nine others were wounded, the president said that his government had that information and “very much regrets” the crime.
López Obrador said that the attack occurred in Aguililla after the army “heard about a camp,” presumably one used by criminals.
“They went to the camp, as far as they could in vehicles, then they walked. But on the way back they didn’t take the same road, but rather another one, and in the weeds there was a trap with explosives … and due to that explosion one soldier died right there, and then the injured were attended to but they weren’t able to save them,” he said without mentioning the nine soldiers who were apparently wounded but didn’t die.
“I send my condolences to the families. … Do you see what the army, the navy, the National Guard, the armed forces have to face up to?”
López Obrador didn’t confirm that the soldiers were involved in a gun battle with armed men, as media outlets reported.
In another tragedy for the armed forces, seven cadet soldiers deployed with the National Guard drowned last week while undertaking a training exercise off the coast of Ensenada, Baja California. They were allegedly forced to go into the water despite rough seas. Only four of the bodies have been recovered.
With reports from López-Dóriga Digital
