Zacatecas governor denies massive death toll subject logo: MEX2013
2013-08-05
Posted by: badanov


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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Zacatecas governor Miguel Alonso Reyes told the press Sunday that stories of 46 dead criminal suspects over the previous three days were false, according to Mexican news accounts.

Press reports primarily from Mexican leftist press say that a total of 46 armed suspects had been killed in Zacataceas state since last Thursday, primarily between Los Zetas and Gulf Cartel shooters.

A news account which appeared on the website of La Jornada news daily said that there were a number of clashes between armed gangs in Zacatecas, the largest taking place Thursday night on a road between Valparaiso and Fresnillo municipalities.

In the gunfight, a Gulf Cartel group ran into a 14 vehicle convoy with 80 Los Zetas shooters aboard. According to the report a total of 38 died in the shootout.

Other encounters were said to have taken place as well. A second smaller gun fight took place late Friday night and went into early Saturday morning in Jerez municipality. Eight dead were reported in that gunfight and another five were kidnapped. The report also made mention of the Los Zetas practice of clearing a battle zone of their dead and wounded as a security measure, which tracks actual cartel tactics.

The reported source of the news was an anonymous source within the headquarters of the Mexican 11th Military Zone based in Guadalupe municipality. The news report said that "higher ups" had ordered news of the shootings and shootout be suppressed. The reason is that a folklore festival was in its last days, and presumably such news would scare away tourists.

According to a news report which appeared in lasnoticiasya.com news daily, Governor Alonso Reyes told the press Sunday that not only did the information released not "fit reality", he said the incidents simply did not happen.

Local Mexican press, until the return of the Partido Revoluinario Institucional (PRI) to national power late last year, have been diligent in reporting such encounters. However, new Mexican federal information policy, mimicked in some form by agreement from private press owners, will not only slow walk information for release, some information will not be released at all.

Even so, new Mexican information policy has been to compile the statistics of crime without reporting on such incidents as shootouts, fulfilling transparency requirements imposed by law since 2000.

According to the La Jornada report other encounters have taken place in Panuco, and Guadalupe municipalities, but no casualty figures have been reported.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com.

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