Mexican Helicopter Shot Down, Killing 3 Soldiers
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Version 0 of 1. MEXICO CITY — A Mexican military helicopter was shot down Friday in southwestern Mexico, killing three soldiers and wounding several others during an outbreak of violence in the region that left banks and gas stations ablaze and residents hunkering indoors, military and regional officials said. An armed group in a rural area of Jalisco State fired on the helicopter, forcing it to make an emergency landing. The army said in a statement that three soldiers died, three were missing and 12 others aboard were wounded, but it was not clear if their injuries were from gunfire, which damaged the tail rotor, or the landing. It was a rare fatal attack on a military aircraft, though several have been strafed or forced to land because of mechanical mishaps as Mexico has stepped up their use in recent years to battle organized crime groups. Violence erupted in four southwestern states early Friday as federal forces cracked down on a major drug gang. In Jalisco, 11 banks and 16 gasoline stations were set on fire and nearly 30 roadblock were formed by flaming vehicles, many of them in the Guadalajara metropolitan area, the country’s second-largest. A total of seven people, including the soldiers, were reported killed, and 15 people were arrested, while the governor of the state, Aristóteles Sandoval, declared a “red alert” and appealed for calm. “The whole government is active,” he said in a post on Twitter. “Security in the state is being redoubled.” The American Consulate in Guadalajara issued a warning to its employees to stay in their homes; Friday was a holiday in Mexico, Labor Day, when many people normally flock to vacation spots. One of them, Puerto Vallarta, on the Pacific Coast in Jalisco, reported fires as well, though they did not appear to be near resorts. The state and federal governments had announced an operation aimed at rooting out the leaders of powerful drug gangs, in particular the Jalisco New Generation, which has been blamed for a series of attacks and ambushes on the police and military as it gains supremacy in a region long a battle zone for gangs. Five members of the federal police’s elite Gendarmerie unit were killed in an ambush in March, its first losses since it was formed last year with much fanfare, and last month 15 state police officers were attacked and killed, one of the highest tolls on security forces in the past few years. The wave of violence follows other outbreaks in recent months, including gun battles last month in Tamaulipas State, along the border with Texas, and the abduction last fall of 43 college students, who the authorities say were later killed and burned to ashes by a drug gang working in league with local police officers. A report by the Justice in Mexico project at the University of San Diego said that homicides had declined in Mexico in the past three years, including an estimated 9 percent to 15 percent in 2014, though it noted that reliable figures were difficult to come by because of discrepancies among the census bureau and security agencies on how murders are tallied. “Even amid the overall reduction in violence, there were serious security crises in central and Pacific states,” the report said, adding that Jalisco is among the states that “have emerged as new trouble spots in Mexico’s battle against organized crime.” |