State police in north-central Mexico killed 13 suspected gang members in a shootout on the same day they captured four people, burying one of their agents and a family member, authorities said Friday.
The security agency of the state of San Luis Potosí said in a statement the confrontation occurred on Thursday evening in the community of Vaqueros in the municipality of Rayon.
Among the victims were 10 men and three women. Authorities did not report any state troopers were injured.
The San Luis Potosí state prosecutor’s office said weapons, tactical equipment and vehicles were seized. Thursday’s operation was the result of information gathered after police arrested four people while burying a state trooper and a family member earlier Thursday, the office said.
Civil Guard of the State of San Luis Potosí/Handout via REUTERS
Last month, in the state of San Luis Potosí, the bound bodies of four people were found burnt remains of a helicopteralong with signs indicating that they were killed by a drug gang.
In the southern state of Guerrero, authorities said Friday they had found six bodies with bullet wounds and two heads nearby.
The the Guerrero prosecutor’s office said the remains were found near a burned and shot vehicle in the municipality of Quechultenango.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador continues to face stubbornly high rates of violence more than halfway through his 6-year term. The president has emphasized attacking the violence with social programs rather than head-on confrontations with the country’s powerful drug cartels.
“I am absolutely convinced that violence cannot be met with violence, coercive measures are not enough, this is the conservative and authoritarian view,” López Obrador said last month.
