Hitmen of Familia Michoacán Responsible for Attack on Guerrero Red Cross

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Sin Embargo

                  
VIDEO: Hit men for the Cartel Familia Michoacán Family allegedly directed the attack on the Red Cross workers in Guerrero

With weapons of high power and taking by surprise the escorts of the mayor of Taxco, Marcos Efrén Parra Gómez, of PAN affiliation, the criminal group that operates under the orders of "El Rany", José Ranulfo Zavala Maldonado, head of the plaza of Taxco, prepared the attack against a gathering of displaced families, mostly women and children, who had fled their mountain villages during non stop violent clashes between criminal groups in the Sierras of Guerrero in which the Mexican Red Cross would deliver humanitarian aid to refugees.

Allied to the Familia Michoacán and under the command of "El Pez", Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga  , "El Rany" were  the leaders of the 20 hit men who carried out the attack. The assassins who murdered the residents and the Red Cross volunteers are between 18 and 20 years old and used AK-47s,  another armed  commando with military-type clothes and equipment. 

"El Pelón", Carlos Zagal Jacobo, and  "El Fierro", José Luis Rodríguez Gama are also wanted for having been the alleged perpetrators of the murders of the two priests Germaín Muñiz García and Iván Añorve Jaimes, on February 5 after having attended a dance in Taxco.

Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero:  The head of sicarios , alias "El Pelón", Carlos Zagal Jacobo, and the son of "El Rany", along with José Luis Rodríguez Gama, aka "El Fierro ",  were those who presumably commanded some 20 young people between 18 and 20 years of age that Sunday which ended  the lives of three state policemen and a paramedic from the Mexican Red Cross who delivered humanitarian aid in the community of San Juan Tenerías, located about 50 minutes from the city of Taxco de Alarcón, according to sources of Military Intelligence.

"This is not against the settlers, it is against the Government of Taxco," exclaimed one of the gunmen who commanded the armed attack, say reporters who collected testimonies from the survivors, most families who came that Sunday to receive blankets and help allow them to weather a bit the inclement cold of this season.

3 state police officers and a member of the Mexican Red Cross died on Sunday, November 18, 2018, during an armed attack in Taxco, Guerrero (Mexico). Photo: EFE, STR.

On Sunday morning, before the population as extreme and vulnerable poverty of San Juan Tenerías, the aggressors fired on a Red Cross ambulance, two three-ton trucks with redillas labeled with Red Cross emblems, a Ford Lobo truck and a patrol of the Municipal Police, according to official reports.

The state police officers who were shot to death by assassins, identified as Lucio Pacheco Abarca, Ignacio Martínez Blanco and Rigoberto de la Cruz Carranza, had assisted as residents of the Mexican Red Cross, but were moving aboard a van of the Municipality Taxco .

While the paramedic Alejandro García Flores of the Benemérita institution was assassinated, in addition the nine wounded by bullets, among them members of the Red Cross and villagers, were perhaps collateral victims of those events.

The authors, according to the first investigators, are members of the Familia Michoacana that operates in the northern area of ​​Guerrero, as well as organized crime groups such as Los Rojos and Guerreros Unidos, the latter linked to the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa normalistas in September 2014 in Iguala, Guerrero.

On Monday night, the mayor of Taxco, the PAN Marcos Efrén Parra Gómez, lamented the facts through a video uploaded to social networks and stressed that his government, which only started in October, has managed to reduce crime rates.

Before, Efrén Parra Gómez panista attended the funerals of the paramedic Alejandro García Flores.

A member of the Municipal Council of the Red Cross of Taxco, who omitted his name for security, denounced that on four occasions he called the Secretary of the municipal government, Esteban Sotelo, to ask for support but never took the call. He also contacted the private secretary of the Mayor, Marcos Parra, who hung up on him . It was through his family and friends that he asked for help from 911 and Municipal Civil Protection.

In a telephone interview with El Sur , he reported that of the three injured Red Cross paramedics, two are seriously injured and were in the operating room, among them a young woman of about 20 years old. He added that they would be transferred to the facilities of the Red Cross of Taxco to receive better care.

San Juan Tenería is a small community located in the mountain part of the municipality of Taxco, about 45 minutes from the municipal seat, on the road that leads to Tetipac and Ixcateopan, and which borders the town of El Aguacate, where on 24 Last July an armed group shot four neighbors, including two children of the commissar Marcial Bustos, aged 17 and 19.

In social networks a video circulates where one of the Red Cross volunteers is seen injured and screaming and crying of minors is heard.

            
Shot at for more than 20 minutes:

Yesterday afternoon, by telephone a member of the Municipal Council of the Red Cross of Taxco who was in the place of the attack, whose name is omitted for security, narrated the terror that they lived for more than 20 minutes.

It was first thought that CJNG was responsible in unofficial versions, who dispute the territory in that area of ​​the northern region of the state with the self-titled group Gente Nueva, which is a split of the Guerreros Unidos group.

They arrived in a convoy composed of an ambulance, a private van, two vans of the State Delegation of the Red Cross loaded with blankets and a patrol of the Municipal Police in which the four state policemen were traveling.

He narrated that the armed group arrived when the staff of the Red Cross gave a first aid training to some 70 neighbors, men, women and children, teaching them how to treat injuries from an accident or a cut.

After the irruption of an armed group, some 1,500 people escaped from 8 communities of Guerrero:

"I heard they came running, it was heard as a race, they were like 20 youngsters, from 18 to 20 years old, they wore clothes like military and long guns, they came shooting against everyone, no matter that there were women and children."

"They were high power weapons, I do not know about weapons but I know how to differentiate from a shotgun," the witness said and calculated that the shooting lasted about 25 minutes.

"We saw one of the Red Cross girls who was wounded was crawling and bleeding, we helped her into the police station, the women and children were screaming and crying but we asked them to be quiet, they heard 'very many' detonations "

He described that from the first bullets everything was chaos, all ran to protect their lives, some took refuge in the municipal police station, which is on the same roofed court, and in another little store that is in the place, others were thrown into the floor.

A member of the Municipal Council of the Red Cross of Taxco, who was in the place of the attack, narrated the terror that they lived for more than 20 minutes. Photo: Cuartoscuro

He said that the state police defended themselves and repelled the aggression, but the armed commando outnumbered them by a lot, the police were only four and the gunmen  20, all with rifles.

He was asked if the armed group arrived only firing at the police, but he said no, the attack was "against all of us who were there, they attacked directly."

He said that they heard one of the gunmen scream that the attack "was not against the civilian population but against the municipal government of Taxco", however there were injuries of the Red Cross and residents.

It transpired that the state police officers who were in the patrol of the municipal police were assigned as escorts of the mayor Marcos Efren Parra, but he was not in that caravan nor was his presence expected in that activity.

The witness described that the criminals killed three policemen "and took another", also killed a "student/ volunteer" of the Red Cross and left three injured Red Cross paramedics and five residents.

Narrated that when everything was silent, they heard when one of the gunmen said "still moving, kill him", referring to one of the state police officers who had been injured.

In some photographs that were broadcast, it is seen that the three policemen have a bullet impact on the head, like the coup de grace. You can also see the floor covered by hundreds of 7.62-caliber percussion shells used for AK-47 rifles known as goat horn.

He reported that on four occasions he called the municipal government secretary of Taxco, Esteban Sotelo to request support but he never took the call, he also called the private secretary of Mayor Marcos Parra but he hung up the call. It was through his family and friends that he asked for help from 911 and Municipal Civil Protection.

In the telephone interview, he reported that of the three Red Cross paramedics injured, two are seriously injured and were in the operating room, among them a young woman in her 20s. He added that they would be transferred to the facilities of the Red Cross of Taxco to receive better care.

He revealed that residents of San Juan Tenería said that the armed group had already two weeks "terrorizing" the community.

He said that the injured began to go down to Adolfo Prieto general hospital in the municipal capital of Taxco until more than an hour later when troops arrived from the Army and municipal Civil Protection personnel, because the cars in which they were traveling, the criminals shot out their tires and shot the gas tanks. The gunmen also shot the ambulances, the patrol, vans and private cars.

Police Unarmed Since 2014:

Last night, state police sources explained that the state police were on board a patrol of the Municipal Police because the one of the corporation in which they were going was broken and for that reason they requested the support to the City Council, who facilitated the vehicle, because the approximately 60 municipal police officers of Taxco are unarmed since October 2014, derived from the investigations of the Ayotzinapa case and their probable responsibility in the event.

In a small press release, the municipal government of Taxco presided over by Marcos Efren Parra Gomez PAN indicated that the people of Taxco are in mourning for the attack against residents of San Juan Tenería, state police and Red Cross personnel who were carrying support and social assistance.

"The municipal government is in constant communication and in coordination with the state government and with all the areas responsible for the implementation of justice." He notes that he is providing immediate medical attention to the people who were injured.

In the statement, he asks respect for the victims of the tragic event and asked "not to be confused by the information generated in social networks and other unofficial communication channels".

 "All Red Cross staff is hurt and dismayed at the loss of their volunteer."

He also condemned any aggression aimed at his volunteering, "because his only interest is to help vulnerable people." And he points out that the aggression that occurred in Taxco against his staff not only harms the institution, but also affects the beneficiaries because they are hopeful in receiving help to mitigate their suffering. "

In addition, he regretted the death of the State Police agents and sent the best wishes for the prompt recovery of six of his volunteers who are injured.

The Mexican Red Cross requested an early investigation of the events that occurred and calls on society to respect volunteerism and the emblem of the institution, "because its sole purpose is to help those who need it the most".