Mexico
Tired of being extorted, farmers in Texcaltitlán in central Mexico hunted down gang members and killed 10 earlier this month
Associated Press in Mexico City
Thu, December 28, 2023, 4:51 p.m. GMT
A drug cartel in central Mexico has kidnapped 14 local residents, including four children, apparently in retaliation for an uprising by angry farmers earlier this month in which 10 cartel gunmen were killed, officials said.
Farmers in the village of Texcaltitlán and a neighboring hamlet had apparently grown tired of cartel extortion. Armed only with sickles and hunting rifles, they hunted suspected gang members with automatic fire on December 8th, hacking, shooting and burning them. Four villagers were also killed in the clash.
Prosecutors said late Wednesday that the cartel then kidnapped 14 people, including four children between the ages of 1 1/2 and 14 years old. The abducted adults include three police officers arrested at a cartel roadblock and an injured villager whom the gang kidnapped from a hospital shortly after the clash.
Jose Luis Cervantes, the chief prosecutor for the state of Mexico, which lies west of the country's capital Mexico City, said no ransom demand had been received. State officials had previously denied that anyone had been kidnapped, saying the people were simply “missing.”
But residents of the village and a nearby hamlet said the Familia Michoacana drug cartel had demanded they hand over the leaders of the uprising in exchange for the release of the kidnapped children and adults.
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Cervantes said none of the villagers would be charged over the Dec. 8 clash because the confrontation was ruled “legitimate self-defense” because the farmers were defending their property.
Earlier, gunmen from the Familia Michoacana cartel, which has long dominated the area, showed up in the village and demanded an extortion fee from local farmers.
The bloodshed occurred in the hamlet of Texcaltitlán, about 80 miles (130 km) southwest of the capital. A video of the clash appears to show the gunmen were wearing military-style uniforms, some with helmets. Villagers apparently set fire to their bodies and vehicles.
Drug cartels in Mexico are known to extort money from almost any legal or illegal business, sometimes attacking or burning down ranches, farms or businesses that refuse to pay.
The Familia Michoacana is known for its brazen police raids, as well as the 2022 massacre of 20 townspeople in the city of Totolapan in the neighboring state of Guerrero. The city's mayor, his father and 18 other men were killed in the attack.
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