The attack left five people dead, two of them sons of the former municipal president of that town. The events add to a wave of attacks in other regions of Oaxaca.
Text: Pedro Matías / Page 3
OAXACA. – At least five people were killed in an armed attack carried out on the afternoon of this Tuesday, February 14, in the center of the town of Santiago Amoltepec, in the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca, Governor Salomón Jara Cruz confirmed.
It transpired that among the dead are two sons of the former municipal president of Santiago Amoltepec, Abel García Santiago, and his bodyguards.
The governor through his Twitter account posted:
“I regret the violent events that occurred in Santiago Amoltepec. I request the @FISCALIA_GobOax to initiate the corresponding investigation and I instruct the @SSPC_GobOax to implement a protection and surveillance operation to safeguard order and peace in that municipality of the Sierra Sur.”
Other homicides in Oaxaca
Hours before, the municipal policeman of Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán, Roberto Ignacio Hernández, was assassinated, while another policeman was seriously injured when they were attacked with firearms.
That is why the Oaxaca State Attorney General’s Office (FGEO) began an investigation into the murder of a municipal police officer and attempted murder against another element, after an attack that occurred this Monday afternoon in the jurisdiction of Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán.
According to the first investigations, the victims were attacked with bullets, while they were carrying out a pursuit in the streets of the Minería neighborhood, of said municipality belonging to the Valles Centrales region.
After the events, the attackers fled, while a man identified by the initials RIH died at the scene, and the other police element was injured and was taken to a hospital for medical attention.
The FGEO brought the case through the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Attention to High Impact Crimes, which deployed its multidisciplinary team to carry out the expert and investigation work to find the whereabouts of those responsible.
Ambush in the Triqui region
Just on February 9, an ambush was perpetrated against militants of the Unifying Movement of Triqui Struggle (MULT) in the vicinity of the community of Tierra Blanca, in the Mixteca region, which left three dead.
In the armed attack, 33-year-old Leodegario Cruz de Jesús, 55-year-old Gabina de Jesús Martínez, and 80-year-old María Ramírez Martínez were killed, while Antonio de Jesús Martínez was seriously injured.
That same day, that is, February 9, the Executive Secretary of the State Public Security System (SESESP), Karina Barón Ortiz, boasted that Oaxaca ranks eighth as the safest state in the country.
According to the statistical data of the crimes that have been registered in the state, from December 2018 to December 2022, for every one hundred thousand inhabitants, in intentional homicide Oaxaca occupies the 13th place; kidnappings 14, vehicle theft 27, extortion 22, human trafficking 16, home robbery 24, robbery in transportation 8, robbery of passerby 9; robbery to carriers 9, robbery to business 23, drug dealing 30, intentional injuries 18, family violence 19, femicide 9 and rape 19.
*This note was made by PÁGINA 3, part of the media alliance of the Red de Periodistas de a Pie. Here you can read it.