Spanish
Morelia (Mexico).- Six Mexican Army soldiers died and two more were injured when an antipersonnel mine exploded as the armored tactical vehicle they were patrolling in passed over it, in a border area of the states of Michoacán and Jalisco, in the west of the country.
A source from the XXI Military Zone (headquartered in Morelia, capital of Michoacán), confirmed to EFE that it was the explosion of a homemade landmine, which detonated on a dirt road in the town of El Santuario, in the Michoacán municipality of Los Reyes, bordering Jalisco.Read more: They assassinate a mayoral candidate for Texistepec, Mexico
The military personnel were in a SandCat-type armored tactical vehicle and belonged to the Special Reaction and Intervention Force (FERI) - a unit assigned to the National Guard - as well as the Emergency Response Group (GRE) of the Army.
The magnitude of the explosion destroyed the military vehicle, so two FERI agents and four GRE agents died immediately, while two more from the latter unit were seriously injured.
Information from the XXI Military Zone specified that the two deceased FERI elements are Second Sub-Inspector Jovany Rosales Rosales and Sub-Agent Jorge Alberto Cruz Velázquez. The identity of the remaining four dead and the two injured has been reserved by the military authorities, although it was revealed that among them is an officer and five troop elements. According to the Mexican Army, the Attorney General's Office of the State of Jalisco took charge of the investigations into the explosion, although a special military group is searching for more explosive devices in the area.The Mexican Army has identified in this region of the country a strong fight between two drug trafficking organizations, self-proclaimed as the Los Reyes Cartel - based in the Michoacán municipality of Los Reyes - and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
Information from the intelligence areas of the Government of the State of Michoacán specifies that both drug cartels have recruited former Colombian military personnel, experts in explosives, to carry out war tactics in this area of Michoacán and Jalisco. The Cártel de Los Reyes is headed by Alfonso Fernández Magallón “Poncho La Quiringüa” and Luis Enrique Barragán Chávez “El Güicho”, while the CJNG is led by the Michoacán drug trafficker, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes “El Mencho”, one of the most wanted criminals by Mexico and the United States.
