San Miguel Totolapan massacre

Last updated

San Miguel Totolapan massacre
Part of Mexican drug war
Location San Miguel Totolapan, Guerrero, Mexico
DateOctober 5, 2022
2pm - ~2:15 pm
Deaths20 killed
PerpetratorLos Tequileros cartel

On October 5, 2022, gunmen allegedly associated with the Los Tequileros cartel killed over 20 people, including the town mayor Conrado Mendoza Almeda, in San Miguel Totolapan, Mexico.

Contents

Prelude

The Los Tequileros cartel was founded in the town of San Antonio La Gavia, in San Miguel Totolapan municipality, by Raybel Jacobo de Almonte after a falling out with leadership of the La Familia Michoacana cartel in 2016. [1] The group originally conducted kidnappings and torture of municipal leaders and mayors of the towns, with Juan Mendoza Acosta, the then-mayor of San Miguel Totolapan, expressing support for the group after being threatened. [1] While local law enforcement and leaders were pressured into allying with Los Tequileros, most civilians of San Miguel Totolapan were against the cartel. [2] In 2016, a small uprising began in the town after disgruntled civilians abducted seventeen alleged Tequileros supporters, including de Almonte (El Tequilero)'s mother. [2] The uprising ended peacefully, although the city council was vacant afterward. [2] In 2018, El Tequilero was shot dead in a battle with police along with twelve other cartel members, and Mexican authorities believed with his death came the dissolution of Los Tequileros. [3] [1]

Shortly before the attack in San Miguel Totolapan, several members of Los Tequileros released a video on social media claiming to reform and continue fighting against LFM. [4] They also claimed responsibility for the death of the municipality's director of Rural Development, who was presumed to have died in a car accident on October 3. [5]

Massacre

At around 2pm on October 5, several groups of armed people appeared in the streets of San Miguel Totolapan. Access to the town was blocked by trucks. [5] [6] The armed men were wearing ski masks, and both attacks were conducted using two SUVs. [7] The first attack occurred at a private home a block away from the town hall, where mayor Conrado Mendoza Almeda was hosting a meeting with municipal leaders. [5] Everyone present was assassinated, including Mendoza Almeda, his father and former mayor Juan Mendoza Acosta; Fredi Martinez Suazo, the director of Public Security; Roberto Mata Marcial, advisor to the mayor; Genesis Araujo Marcos, administrator of Sanitation; Samuel Garcia and Jose Antolin Calvo Caballero, both escorts to the mayor, and three other residents of the house, including a US citizen. [5]

The second attack, carried out in tandem to the first, occurred at the town hall. [4] Seven police officers and one passersby were killed, and shots were reported in other houses and parts of the town afterward. [8] A survivor of the attack claimed it lasted only 10 to 15 minutes total. [9]

Aftermath

The governor of Guerrero, where San Miguel Totolapan is located, stated on Twitter that "There will be no impunity for the malicious aggression against the municipal president and local government officials." [10] Survivors of the massacre claimed it was the deadliest event in the town in twenty years. [9] Twenty people were killed in total, and there were so many victims a backhoe was rented to bury all of them. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Zetas</span> Mexican criminal syndicate

Los Zetas is a Mexican criminal syndicate, formerly as one of the most dangerous of Mexico's drug cartels. They are known for engaging in brutally violent "shock and awe" tactics such as beheadings, torture, and indiscriminate murder. While primarily concerned with drug trafficking, the organization also runs profitable sex and gun rackets. Los Zetas also operate through protection rackets, assassinations, extortion, kidnappings and other illegal activities. The organization is based in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, directly across the border from Laredo, Texas. The origins of Los Zetas date back to the late 1990s, when commandos of the Mexican Army deserted their ranks and began working as the enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel. In February 2010, Los Zetas broke away and formed their own criminal organization, rivalling the Gulf Cartel.

The timeline of some of the most relevant events in the Mexican drug war is set out below. Although violence between drug cartels had been occurring for three decades, the Mexican government held a generally passive stance regarding cartel violence through the 1980s and early 2000s.

San Miguel Totolapan is one of the 81 municipalities of Guerrero, in south-western Mexico. The municipal seat lies at San Miguel Totolapan. The municipality covers an area of 2,648.1 km².

San Miguel Totolapan is a city and seat of the municipality of San Miguel Totolapan, in the state of Guerrero, south-western Mexico.

The Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO), also known as the Beltrán Leyva Cartel; Spanish: Cártel de los Beltrán Leyva (CBL), was a Mexican drug cartel and organized crime syndicate, formerly headed by the five Beltrán Leyva brothers: Marcos Arturo, Carlos, Alfredo, Mario Alberto, and Héctor. Founded as a Sinaloa Cartel, the Beltrán Leyva cartel was responsible for transportation and wholesaling of cocaine, heroin and marijuana. It controlled numerous drug trafficking corridors, and engaged in human smuggling, money laundering, extortion, kidnapping, murder and gun-running.

The 2010 San Fernando massacre, also known as the first massacre of San Fernando, was the mass murder of 72 undocumented immigrants by Los Zetas drug cartel in the village of El Huizachal in the municipality of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The 72 killed—58 men and 14 women—were mainly from Central and South America, and they were shot in the back of the head and then piled up together. The bodies were found inside a ranch on 24 August 2010 by the Mexican military after they engaged in an armed confrontation with members of a drug cartel. They received information of the place after an Ecuadorian survived a shot to the neck and face, faked his death, and then made his way out of the ranch and up to a military checkout to ask for help. There were only three survivors. Investigators later mentioned that the massacre was a result of the immigrants' refusal to work for Los Zetas, or to provide money for their release.

This is a list of events that happened in 2010 in Mexico. The article also lists the most important political leaders during the year at both federal and state levels.

This is a list of events that happened in 2011 in Mexico. The article also lists the most important political leaders during the year at both federal and state levels.

The 2011 San Fernando massacre, also known as the second massacre of San Fernando, was the mass murder of 193 people by Los Zetas drug cartel at La Joya ranch in the municipality of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, in March 2011. Authorities investigating the massacre reported numerous hijackings of passenger buses on Mexican Federal Highway 101 in San Fernando, and the kidnapped victims were later killed and buried in 47 clandestine mass graves. The investigations began immediately after several suitcases and other baggage went unclaimed in Reynosa and Matamoros, Tamaulipas. On 6 April 2011, Mexican authorities exhumed 59 corpses from eight mass graves. By 7 June 2011, after a series of multiple excavations, a total of 193 bodies were exhumed from mass graves in San Fernando.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jalisco New Generation Cartel</span> Mexican drug cartel

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel or CJNG, formerly known as Los Mata Zetas, is a Mexican organized crime syndicate based in Jalisco which is headed by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, one of the world's most-wanted drug lords. The cartel has been characterized by its aggressive use of extreme violence and its public relations campaigns. Although the CJNG is particularly known for diversifying into various types of criminal rackets, drug trafficking remains its most profitable activity. The cartel has also been noted for cannibalizing some of its victims, sometimes during the training of new sicarios or cartel members, as well as using drones and rocket-propelled grenades to attack its enemies.

The 2012 Nuevo Laredo massacres were a series of mass murder attacks between the allied Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel against Los Zetas in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, across the U.S.-Mexico border from Laredo, Texas. The drug-violence in Nuevo Laredo began back in 2003, when the city was controlled by the Gulf Cartel. Most media reports that write about the Mexican Drug War, however, point to 2006 as the start of the drug war. That year is a convenient historical marker because that's when Felipe Calderón took office and carried out an aggressive approach against the cartels. But authors like Ioan Grillo and Sylvia Longmire note that Mexico's drug war actually began at the end of Vicente Fox's administration in 2004, when the first major battle took place in Nuevo Laredo between the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Zetas, who at that time worked as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cadereyta Jiménez massacre</span> 2012 mass killing by the Los Zetas cartel in Cadereyta Jiménez, Nuevo León, Mexico

The Cadereyta Jiménez massacre occurred on the Fed 40 on 12–13 May 2012. Mexican officials stated that 49 people were decapitated and mutilated by members of Los Zetas drug cartel and dumped by a roadside near the city of Monterrey in northern Mexico. The Blog del Narco, a blog that documents events and people of the Mexican Drug War anonymously, reported that the actual (unofficial) death toll may be more than 68 people. The bodies were found in the town of San Juan in the municipality of Cadereyta Jiménez, Nuevo León at about 4 a.m. on a non-toll highway leading to Reynosa, Tamaulipas. The forty-three men and six women killed had their heads, feet, and hands cut off, making their identification difficult. Those killed also bore signs of torture and were stuffed in plastic bags. The arrested suspects have indicated that the victims were Gulf Cartel members, but the Mexican authorities have not ruled out the possibility that they were U.S.-bound migrants. Four days before this incident, 18 people were found decapitated and dismembered near Mexico's second largest city, Guadalajara.

This is a list of events that happened in 2014 in Mexico. The article also lists the most important political leaders during the year at both federal and state levels.

The Villas de Salvárcar massacre occurred in Villas de Salvárcar, Ciudad Juárez on January 31, 2010, early in the morning. 16 young people died. Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera of the El Paso Times stated that the event "brought attention to the city's social problems" and "caused outrage in Mexico because of the brutality". People outside Mexico also expressed outrage about the crime. As a result, the federal government started the program "Todos Somos Juárez" to rejuvenate the city, and President of Mexico Felipe Calderón took additional measures against drug cartels. Lorena Figueroa of the El Paso Times stated that due to the "brutality" of the crime, "The massacre gave notoriety" to Villas de Salvárcar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iguala mass kidnapping</span> 2014 abduction of college students

On September 26, 2014, forty-three male students disappeared from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College after being forcibly abducted in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. They were allegedly taken into custody by local police officers from Iguala and Cocula in collusion with organized crime. The mass kidnapping has caused continued international protests and social unrest, leading to the resignation of Guerrero Governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero in the face of statewide protests on October 23, 2014.

On the night of 19 April 2019 in the city of Minatitlán, Veracruz, Mexico, 14 people were killed, including a one-year-old baby, while they were celebrating a birthday party for a 52-year-old woman, when the assailants asked for "La Becky", the manager of a gay bar in Minatitlán and they started shooting.

Rolando López Salinas, also known as El Rolis, was a Mexican suspected drug lord and former high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, Mexico. López Salinas started his criminal career as the right-hand man of his cousin Edelio López Falcón and was in charge of his security services, and later became involved in drug trafficking operations. During his criminal career, López Salinas survived two assassination attempts—one in 1999 and another in 2000—which were reportedly triggered by his differences with Gilberto García Mena, a former cartel boss. After López Falcón came into conflict with the cartel's leadership, both he and López Salinas broke ties with the cartel and forged alliances with rival criminal groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Culiacán</span> 2019 Mexican National Guard operation to capture Ovidio Guzmán López

The Battle of Culiacán also known colloquially as Culiacanazo and Black Thursday was a failed operation by the Mexican National Guard to capture Ovidio Guzmán López, who is wanted in the United States for drug trafficking.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Who are the Los Tequileros gangsters?". Mexicanist. October 11, 2022. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 McDonnell, Patrick (December 17, 2016). "In one small Mexican town, the citizens become armed vigilantes to take on a drug gang". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 9, 2023. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  3. ↑ Noel, Andrea (March 5, 2017). "He Livestreamed About the Cartels—Until He Was Shot Dead". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on May 20, 2017. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  4. 1 2 "Mexico mayor assassinated in town hall massacre". BBC News. October 6, 2022. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Paso a paso de la masacre en San Miguel Totolapan que dejó 18 personas asesinadas". infobae (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on October 20, 2022. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  6. ↑ "México: asesinan a un alcalde y a 19 personas más en un doble tiroteo en el estado de Guerrero". BBC News Mundo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on October 27, 2022. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Gunmen in ski masks kill 20 people, including mayor, in southern Mexico massacre". The Independent. October 6, 2022. Archived from the original on November 4, 2022. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  8. ↑ "Son 20 personas asesinadas en Totolapan, Guerrero: SSPC; vinculan a "Los Tequileros" con la masacre". El Universal (in Spanish). Archived from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  9. 1 2 Garcia, Karol Suárez and Franyeli. "City hall massacre: Local Mexican leaders risk lives to stay in office in cartel territory". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  10. ↑ Evelyn Salgado Pineda [@EvelynSalgadoP] (October 6, 2022). "Lamento profundamente el sensible fallecimiento del alcalde de San Miguel Totolapan, Conrado Mendoza Almeda..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  11. ↑ "Drug gang kills 20 in attack on city hall in southern Mexico". AP NEWS. October 6, 2022. Archived from the original on December 9, 2022. Retrieved April 4, 2023.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.