Cartels clash in Uruapan, Michoacán, leaving 10 dead

May 23, 2019

Security forces at the scene of crime gang shootout.

Ten people were killed and four injured in a shootout between rival criminal groups in the city of Uruapan, Michoacán, on Wednesday afternoon.

State police said that the parties to the shootout were members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Viagras gang, two of the main criminal gangs fighting for control in Michoacán. The shooting lasted over an hour and took place in the Arroyo Colorado neighborhood of Uruapan.

Police later found high-powered rifles, magazines and cartridges of different calibers at the site of the gun fight. The injured were placed under arrest and taken to a hospital, while the dead were taken to a morgue for identification.

State police, with the support of the army, are searching for any participants who may have escaped, and are reinforcing prevention efforts in Uruapan, including patrols, checkpoints and random searches of vehicles.

The clash took place during a bloody week in Michoacán. On Tuesday, a body was left in Morelia with a message written on a sheet, while in the city of Chilchota a shootout left three civilians dead and two police officers injured. Earlier on Wednesday morning, a man was shot and killed while driving a vehicle on a highway near Huaniqueo.

After the shootout, the Michoacán government took to Twitter to call for the new National Guard to be sent to the state.

“From the state of Michoacán, we call for cooperation between the three levels of government, and for the recently created National Guard to be sent here to help confront this problem,” read the tweet.