A commando of armed men on Tuesday abducted 14 state police officers in southern Mexico, prompting a heavy deployment of federal and local forces, authorities said.
The Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection in Chiapas state said in a statement that the 14 officers were all men, and an air and ground operation was under way to locate them.
An official with the state police force, who asked not to be quoted because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said the agents were traveling to the capital of Chiapas in a personnel transport truck when they were intercepted by several trucks carrying gunmen.
The women in the vehicle were released while the men were taken away, the official said.
The abduction occurred on the highway between Ocozocoautla and Tuxtla Gutierrez.
In videos posted online, whose authenticity prosecutors said they were working to verify, several individuals with long guns and bulletproof vests are seen next to at least three trucks that block a highway.
The Reforma newspaper reported that armed men stopped a vehicle that was transporting police employees, took their cell phones away and ordered them to lie on the ground.
Violence in the Mexican border region with Guatemala has escalated in the past few months amid a territorial dispute between the Sinaloa Cartel — which has dominated the area — and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
During a tour of Chiapas on Friday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador minimized the violence in the area, saying that “in general there is peace, there is tranquility” in the state.
The day before the president’s visit, an official with the Attorney General’s Office was shot at in Tuxtla Gutierrez. Her companion was killed in the attack. The official was seriously injured and was hospitalized.
In addition, on Monday last week, a confrontation between the military and presumed members of organized crime left an element of the Mexican National Guard and a civilian dead in Ocozocoautla, near where Tuesday’s kidnapping occurred.
Additional reporting by AFP
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