Friday, July 18, 2025

Warring cartels leave 2 police officers and 7 others dead in Zacatecas

Two police officers were killed and their bodies hung from an overpass and seven more people were massacred by gunfire in Zacatecas Wednesday.

The police officers, who were from the neighboring state of San Luis Potosí, had been reported missing but were later found hanging from a highway overpass alongside a narco banner in Zacatecas city.

In Fresnillo, about 60 kilometers north of the state capital, an armed group entered a home and killed four women and three men. Another male and female were wounded and taken to hospital, and five children were found unharmed in a separate room.

San Luis Potosí Interior Minister Jorge Daniel Hernández Delgadillo explained the context of violence in the area. “In this area, particularly near the border with Zacatecas, there is a struggle for the control of the narcotics trade. The most prominent criminal groups do their most deplorable acts in this area,” he said.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CNJG) and the Sinaloa Cartel are engaged in a territorial battle over the state.

Senator Ricardo Monreal, who is from Fresnillo, has urged Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez to strengthen law enforcement. “For years insecurity has been on the rise in Zacatecas, as recent events have proven. Today I contacted the federal Minister of Security to request support in the state … I will discuss it with president @lopezobrador_,” he wrote on Twitter.

The killings are not an isolated case: on Saturday three bodies were found hanging from a bridge in Fresnillo.

In February, Zacatecas Governor Alejandro Tello asked the federal government for support, arguing that the cartels overpowered security forces in terms of manpower and weapons.

Ninety-five percent of residents in Fresnillo consider the municipality to be unsafe — the highest proportion in the country — according to a survey published by the statistics agency Inegi in April.

With reports from Reforma and El País

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
two people walkin gby a for rent sign

Can rent control stop gentrification? Mexico City officials plan to find out

4
Political leaders in the nation's capital have reached into their anti-gentrification toolkit and come up with an approach that goes straight to the heart of the problem.
cell phone with Uber

Mexican authorities slam Uber’s price hike: ‘Unilateral and irresponsible’

2
The ride-hailing app insists that the rise is necessary after recent labor reforms gave its drivers full employee rights, including IMSS membership.
The achoque is a critically endangered salamander that’s the cousin of the famous axolotl.

Lake Pátzcuaro’s fishermen answer call to rescue the achoque, the axolotl’s endangered cousin

2
Fishermen in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, have teamed up with local scientists to raise achoque hatchlings and re-release them into the lake in an effort to stabilize their declining population.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity