Michoacán: A car bomb explodes in front of the Coahuayana community police headquarters and leaves at least three dead

A car bomb exploded this Saturday in front of the community police facilities of Coahuayana, in Michoacán, and left at least two dead and eight injured, including minors, as this newspaper has learned. The attack against the headquarters of the municipal command has occurred in the midst of the “pacification” process of the State, the strategy implemented by President Claudia Sheinbaum after the brutal murder of the mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo, at a public event.

The explosion occurred after noon, when a truck with bananas was passing by the door of the command, as the leader of the Coahuayana self-defense groups, Héctor Zepeda, the so-called Commander Teto, explained to EL PAÍS. Zepeda has indicated that the criminals have not left the truck and gone, but rather they were riding.

The Michoacán Prosecutor’s Office is coordinating the investigation of the attack, in which the Secretariat of Defense, the Navy and Security, as well as the National Guard, also participate. The new Secretary of Security of Michoacán, José Antonio Cruz, who came in after Manzo’s murder, has reported a joint operation in the area between federal and state forces.

This banana-producing land, with more than 7,000 hectares of plantations, has always been under siege. First it was the Knights Templar and, in recent times, the enemy is the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Located in the coastal area of ​​Michoacán, it is a disputed territory, due to its powerful banana industry, its proximity to the Aquila mine and the methamphetamine laboratories in the mountains.

Near Coahuayana there are Army and National Guard bases, but residents have been warning of their omissions for years. For this reason, a year ago, in an interview for this newspaper plan pa, Commander Teto confessed himself exhausted: “I am tired, but more disappointed with the Government. The Government continues to look at us with distrust! We are not against them, we are against them supporting others.”

With information from Pablo Ferri