“They took them off the patrol cars to kill them”: the most violent October afternoon in Guerrero, Mexico, where 13 police officers were shot in an ambush

The images of the corpses of four police officers in a field are disturbing, they give a pulse. Of the four standing facing the sand, three have their hands cuffed behind their backs.

The four officers are part of the horrific toll of a violent act committed by alleged assassins in Guerrero, Mexico.

In that state, these individuals ambushed two groups of police officers and massacred thirteen.

The events were recorded on the afternoon of Monday, October 23, 2023, in Coyuca de Benítez, Guerrero state, EFE said.

They took them off the patrols to kill them

When officials from the municipal preventive police arrived at a module in the town of El Papayo around 2 p.m., they were surprised by a group of armed men, the aforementioned Spanish agency said.

El Papayo is located near the Acapulco – Zihuatanejo federal highway, in the municipality of Coyuca de Benítez, belonging to the Costa Grande region of Guerrero.

The municipal police officers were taken from their patrol cars to be killed, he explained as he reported on some photos circulating on social networks.

In cold blood, those ‘hitmen’ took the other group of officers ‘a few meters away to kill them’.

Some indeed had ‘their hands cuffed behind their backs’. They all went ‘with their guns’.

In light of the painful events, the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reported that they would send 300 members of the National Guard to Coyuca de Benítez.

Ambush, barbarism

“A shame about Coyuca de Benítez, practically an ambush for police officers. I send a sincere hug to the families of the police officers. It hurts a lot when a person loses his life (…),” the president said during his morning press conference – the first morning – on Tuesday, October 24.

He announced: “There is a deployment of the National Guard, consisting of 300 elements.”

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On Monday evening, journalist Ciro Gómez Leyva emphasized that “barbarism and cruelty once again characterized this state and that nothing seems to solve the crisis of violence.”

Gómez Leyva emphasized that among the thirteen dead were the municipal secretary for public security, Alfredo López, and the director of the preventive police, Honorio Salinas.

“Some bodies had a touch of grace and were also subdued and captivated,” he pointed out.

What’s behind the incessant wave of violence in Mexico?

Threats against the police?

According to the veteran journalist, Governor Evelyn Salgado was in the area fifteen days ago and “they claim that the mayor (of Coyuca de Benítez) Osiel Pacheco did not inform her of any threats against the police.”

However, on Tuesday the 24th, the Deputy Prosecutor for Investigations, Gabriel Hernández Mendoza, indicated that they already have two lines of investigation into the case, El Despertar de La Costa reported.

He added that Mayor Osiel Pacheco had “not made any security threats.”

Likewise, EFE quotes the spokesperson of the Coordination Table for the Building of Peace in the State of Guerrero, Randy Suástegui Cebrero. No threats or reports were reported in that conversation between Salgado and Pacheco.

The Spanish agency does not fail to emphasize that Guerrero “occupies seventh place nationally in terms of the number of homicides, with 800 homicides in the first half of 2023,” according to Mexico’s Secretariat for Security and Civil Protection (SSPC).

While journalist Joaquín López Dóriga noted, “There have been 169,280 murders in President López Obrador’s six-year term so far.”

(JO)