By “El Huaso” for Borderland Beat
Yesterday evening, Alejandro Camacho Escobar, the Guanajuato Sub Secretary of Citizen Security, was killed by three armed gunmen in tactical gear while driving outside Guanajuato City.
According to El Financiero, Escobar was attacked around 5:15 p.m. while driving on the Puentecillas highway near Centro de Readaptación Social (Cereso) in the southern outskirts of the city. Periodico Correo however reported that he was attacked outside his home in the same neighborhood.
Authorities report the attackers were aboard a black Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck. The attackers fled the scene and despite security force searches in the southern part of the city, neither the attackers nor vehicle have not been located.
According to N+ Noticias, there were three attackers, all in tactical gear.
The mayor of Guanajuato City, Alejandro Navarro posted the news on his Facebook page. Mayor Navarro remembered Escobar as an “incorruptible” man who “deserved all my respect and confidence”.
In a radio interview, Navarro said that the attack was a threat from an organized crime group to the city’s security forces for challenging their operations, reported Zona Franca.
According to Mexican think tank Causa en Común, 346 police officers have been killed in the state of Guanajuato since 2018. Guanajuato has had the most police officers killed in Mexico every year except for 2022, when Zacatecas topped the list. This year, Guanajuato once again leads the count with 19 killed so far.
Guanajuato is the most violent state in Mexico since 2018, amassing a total of 20,292 deaths. Most of this violence is related to the conflict between the Cártel Santa Rosa de Lima (CSRL), and the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) for control of the state’s meth and fuel theft markets.