Whole Cities Are Under Siege by Narcos in Mexico

[Judi Lynn]

Cartel violence has wracked Mexico since the reported arrest of cartel leader Ricardo Ruiz, or “Doble R.” Now AMLO is claiming Doble R was never arrested.

Luis Chaparro
By Luis Chaparro
Nathaniel Janowitz
By Nathaniel Janowitz
August 12, 2022, 3:03pm

MEXICO CITY — In one of his last public acts, César Valencia Caballero, the mayor of Aguililla, Michoacán, held an event in the central square to celebrate the peace the government declared in the town after months of cartel control. Three weeks later, he was assassinated in his car.

Sources in the area shared photos and videos of the scene of Valencia’s murder with VICE World News. A white pickup truck is parked on a city street with a body covered with a white sheet slumped in the front seat. Soldiers stand guard. One person at the scene, who asked not to be named to protect his security, said in a voice message forwarded to VICE World News that the mayor had been shot twice in the chest and once in the neck. On Friday, Michoacán’s state prosecutor tweeted that Valencia’s adviser had also been found dead.

The murders underscore the chaos engulfing Aguililla, which the Jalisco New Generation Cartel—the most powerful and violent crime group in Mexico—had been controlling for almost a year until the Mexican army and National Guard launched an offensive to kick out the group, known as the CJNG, in February. The CJNG’s leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes aka El Mencho, is from Aguililla and among the most-wanted fugitives in Mexico.

The killings are the latest in a series of escalating acts of brutality in the Pacific Coast state. On the same day as Valencia’s assassination, a group of hitmen descended on the town of Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro, a reputed stronghold of the CJNG that is about four hours east of Aguililla.

More:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/akvqdk/michoacan-aguililla-mayor-cesar-valencia-murdered