Drug cartel gunmen burned over 2 dozen stores and blocked streets with blazing vehicles in western Mexico in a response to a series of arrests of drug cartel figures.
Images circulated on social media showed men commandeering cars and buses & setting them on fire late Tuesday in the middle of roadways. Others showed burned out convenience stores.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday that soldiers had confronted criminals, including “bosses,” at a “meeting of 2 gangs” Jalisco state.
The president said there was a shootout, arrests & “this provoked protests of burned vehicles, not only in Jalisco, but also in Guanajuato.”
Oxxo, a national chain of convenience stores owned by Femsa, the country's largest bottling company, said in a statement that 25 of its stores in Guanajuato — which borders Jalisco, home to the cartel of the same name — were either totally or partially burned.
Videos showed armed men, some shouting slogans in support of the Jalisco cartel, bursting into convenience stores before setting fires, as occupants of the stores fled.
Cartels often create such chaos in an effort to keep authorities from transporting captured cartel bosses or to protest arrests.
López Obrador said authorities were still deployed Wednesday in the area of Jalisco where the initial arrests were made.
Jalisco Gov. Enrique Alfaro said 5 people had been detained in the raids & 1 suspect was killed.
Jalisco is dominated by the Jalisco New Generation cartel, whose leader Nemesio Oseguera, “El Mencho,” is among the most sought by Mexican and U.S. authorities.
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Source: AP
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