Five Members of Mexico's Armed Forces Are Dead After Alleged Jalisco Cartel Attack

Alleged members of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), one of Mexico's biggest and most violent criminal organizations, took part in a series of violent clashes with members of the Mexican Army and National Guard that left at least five deaths.

The incidents took place on March 16 in multiple municipalities across the states of Jalisco and Michoacán. According to Michoacán's Secretariat of Public Safety, one of the most violent clashes unfolded in the municipality of Chilchota, where members of Mexico's Secretariat of National Defense were ambushed by alleged cartel members along a highway.

According to local media outlets, Mexican armed forces were left stranded in a rural community after spike strips were placed along the highway. They were then attacked while trying to replace the tires. Three soldiers died as a result of the attack, while two suffered serious injuries

The first attack of the day, the National Guard recounted, took place at around 6 p.m. in the municipality of La Barca, in Jalisco, when a group of armed civilians attacked patrol cars. The attacks quickly spread out and it reached other municipalities and towns near the Jalisco-Michoacán state border. One of them took place in the rural community of Guadalupe de Lerma, where two members of the National Guard were killed inside their patrol car.

Armed civilians thought to be linked to the Jalisco cartel stole at least five vehicles that were later set on fire and used to create roadblocks along highways connecting Jalisco and Michoacán.

According to initial investigations, the attacks could be linked to Heraclio Guerrero Martínez, also known as "El Tío Laco," one of the Jalisco cartel's leaders in the state of Michoacán and a close ally of Nemesio Seguera Cervantes, a.k.a. "El Mencho," the main leader of the CJNG.

As Proceso reports, members of Mexico's armed forced had been attacked less than two weeks ago in the same region, leaving two soldiers severely injured.

After the March 16 incidents, Michoacán's Secretariat of Public Safety posted on X that an operation involving multiple federal agencies was deployed at the Zamora, La Piedad and Jiquilpan municipalities in order to find those responsible for the attacks.