Huachicol, homicides and the presence of the CJNG: this is the municipality where the trustee Francisco Díaz was murdered

The murder of the trustee of Cuitzeo, Michoacán, has been the latest in a series of violent events in the region, whose bloody streak has not been stopped and the authorities relate directly with the crime of huachicol.

Francisco Díaz Rodríguez was killed and located inside his car on a stretch that connects the city of Morelia to Salamanca, after he had been reported deprived of liberty.

His body showed signs of violence — unofficial versions indicated an impact on the head — and he was found inside a Mitsubishi vehicle. The Michoacán Prosecutor's Office confirmed that it has already started investigations.

On Monday, May 31, a few days before the 2021 election day, remembered as one of the bloodiest in history, Cuitzeo's mayoral candidate Rosa Elia Milan Pintor, for the Morena (National Regeneration Movement) and PT (Labor Party) alliance was the victim of a shooting attack when she returned home with her husband.

The aspiring mayor and her family were traveling in two vans, which had left the town of Mariano Escobedo in the direction of Cuitzeo; however, at the entrance to the municipal seat a group of armed men on board a motorcycle and a car opened fire on them.

The civil servant was unharmed after the attack. However, her husband died the next day when he was treated in a hospital, Michoacán authorities reported.

In November last year, the governor of the entity Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla said that Cuitzeo operates a criminal gang dedicated to fuel theft, known as huachicol. “Cuitzeo is an area that has had the presence of huachicol for years,” he said. According to the State Executive, this crime lasted for years, since the group is linked to the sum of murders and violence recorded in the demarcation.

In recent months, the authorities have secured several thousand liters of stolen fuel and have secured dozens of vehicles that were used for that purpose.

On December 2, a gang of kidnappers operating in Guanajuato, but hiding in Cuitzeo (53.9 kilometers apart), was dismantled by the Attorney General's Office. Its members, Alfredo El Patron; Reynaldo El Rey; Ramiro El Peche and María Guadalupe, were captured that day by members of the National Guard and the Mexican Army and later linked to the trial.

“These subjects are accused of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of a businessman from Valle de Santiago, his detention helped to clarify various events of kidnapping committed in Guanajuato and the state of Michoacán,” the FGE reported in a statement.

Cuitzeo is located in the vicinity of the lake of the same name and at the end of last year there was a strengthening of agents in the area with the appointment of the director and deputy director of the municipality's Security Secretariat. The area has also served as a step towards the expansion of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which entered Guanajuato to displace the Santa Rosa Cartel from Lima.

On November 21, when the new commanders arrived, there was an attack on the Chivis bar located in the Centro neighborhood of the municipality. The result of the attack was two dead and six wounded, including two women.

Armed persons entered the nightclub on Lazaro Cardenas Street and opened fire on those present. On that occasion, sources consulted by Infobae Mexico indicated that this could have been a criminal response after the intervention of state authorities.

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