7 die in La Laguna
2013-07-30
Posted by: badanov
For a map, click here. For a map of Coahuila state, click here. For a map of Durango state, click here
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of seven individuals have been killed in ongoing drug and gang related violence in Mexico's La Laguna region Monday, according to Mexican news accounts.
Newa accounts which appeared on the online editions of El Siglo de Torreon and El Diario de Coahuila say that five unidentified taxi drivers were gunned down at a taxi stand in Ciudad Lerdo, one of the larger towns in La Laguna region of north central Mexico.
According to the reports, the shooting began at about 1330 hrs when armed suspects with AK-47 rifles fired on the victims in the Centauro del Norte colony near the Ciudad Lerdo to Juarez highway. At the moment reports fail to make clear if anyone survived the shooting other than one unidentified man who was taken for medical treatment.
Only an hour before, in Gomez Palacio, which is directly adjacent to Ciudad Lerdo, two men were shot to death near a primary school.
The victims were identified as Ruben Huereca Gaytan and Jesus Rivera Rangel, and were shot near Benito Juarez primary school in Bellavista colony by armed suspects using AR-15 rifles.
The La Laguna region, which comprises several western Coahuila and eastern Durango municipalities, recently underwent a change in its security status when it was announced that the Mexican Army would take over all police functions. Until that announcement, La Laguna had suffered from a high amount of criminal activity including armed robberies.
Gomez Palacio had part of its police department dismissed earlier in the year and was disarmed by the Mexican Army enforcing the Explosive and Firearms Act.
Mexican federal information policy makes it nearly impossible to gauge how well Mexican federal security operations in the region fare, but as with several other regions in Mexico including La Laguna, La Tarahumara and northern Tamaulipas, it appears that federal security elements may have been redeployed to Michoacan to deal with the renewed violence in that state, leaving the other regions with reduced security deployments.
In other security news in Coahuila state a total of eight unidentified suspects were detained near the town of Cuatro Cienegas by Coahuila state Policia Estatal units, according to a news account posted on El Siglo de Torreon.
The suspects were detained on a variety of offenses including murder, kidnapping and extortion.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com
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