Firefighters douse flames from a burnt bus on the highway between Guadalajara in Jalisco state and Leon city, in Guanajuato State, Mexico. More than a dozen vehicles were set on fire on Friday across Guadalajara as a drug gang and authorities clashed in another part of Jalisco state.

 

AFP/Mexico City


Mexican authorities yesterday searched for three missing soldiers after their helicopter was forced down by gunmen during an anti-drug cartel operation in Jalisco state.
Three other soldiers were killed while 10 troops and two federal police officers were injured on Friday when the assailants shot the Cougar helicopter, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing.
The attack came on a day of violence across the western state that authorities say was launched by the Jalisco New Generation Drug Cartel in a bid to thwart a military and police operation against the gang.
Soldiers and investigators from the attorney general’s office were searching for the three missing troops in a small area around the helicopter landing site, federal officials told AFP.
There is a lot of vegetation in the area and the soldiers could either be hiding there, or be either unconscious or dead, the officials said.
“We still don’t know what happened to them,” one of the officials said on condition of anonymity. “It’s a very detailed search to find them.”
Asked whether authorities believe the cartel could have kidnapped the soldiers, a second official said: “I won’t speculate on that. We maintain the version that they are missing.”
The helicopter came under fire between the towns of Casimiro Castillo and Villa Purificacion.
A total of seven people died in Friday’s violence, which included roadblocks with torched vehicles in several towns, arson attacks against banks and gasoline stations, and shootouts in four locations.
Authorities detained 19 people.
The New Generation cartel, led by Nemesio Oseguera, alias ‘El Mencho’, has violently defied authorities this year, killing 20 police officers in two ambushes in March and April.
Last month, the US Treasury Department slapped financial sanctions on the New Generation as well as its allies, the Los Cuinis cartel.
Three-dozen vehicles were set on fire or used as roadblocks in 39 spots affecting 25 towns, including the Pacific resort town of Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara, Mexico’s second biggest city, where residents were urged to stay indoors during the May Day holiday.
Banks and gasoline stations were torched and numerous people were detained as violence flared on the day that the military and federal police launched Operation Jalisco to crack down on the Jalisco New Generation Drug Cartel.
Another 15 vehicles were torched in the neighbouring states of Colima, Michoacan and Guanajuato, said National Security Commission Monte Alejandro Rubido.
“In reaction to the federal presence, members of the criminal group began several actions in a bid to thwart the actions of the security agencies,” Rubido told a news conference.
President Enrique Pena Nieto said in brief remarks to reporters that the operation was “in combat against a highly dangerous criminal organization.”
Authorities urged residents of Guadalajara to stay indoors. No shootouts were reported in the city.
“Remain calm. If you have any reason to leave your house, don’t go out,” the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office said on Twitter.
The US consulate issued a security message advising its employees “to remain in their homes until the situation is resolved” and its citizens to avoid traveling to the area.
By early evening, Governor Aristoteles Sandoval told reporters that the situation was “calm” across Jalisco, though authorities remained under “code red.”
The New Generation is a rising power of Mexico’s underworld that had been overshadowed by other groups such as the Sinaloa, Zetas, Gulf and Knights Templar cartels.
The gang has even recruited military deserters, including foreign ones, security officials say.
The cartel has drawn the attention of the US government, which has funded Mexico’s battle against drug traffickers by providing equipment, training and intelligence.


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