6 police, 10 suspects killed in Mexico shootouts

MEXICO CITY — A total of sixteen people — six police officers and 10 suspects — were killed in two confrontations in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, authorities said Wednesday.

State security spokesperson Roberto Alvarez said the first shootout occurred late Tuesday, when a state police convoy came under attack in Coacuyul, a town near the Pacific coast resort of Zihuatanejo.

He said one police officer was wounded and police returned fire, killing 10 gunmen during a 30-minute battle.

In what Alvarez said may have been retaliation for the first attack, gunmen later ambushed a state police convoy 30 kilometres north of Zihuatanejo and killed six police officers.

The officers had been visiting nine families in the hamlet of Las Mesillas who were considered at risk because of the drug gang violence that has plagued the area.

The police had been assigned to perform periodic checkups with the families, whose members include 54 people. Alvarez said “criminal gangs had pressured the families, kidnapped and tried to forcibly recruit them.” Hundreds of people have fled their towns in the mountains of the state because of gang threats and violence.

Guerrero has Mexico’s thirdhighest homicide rate, at 64 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. The state has become one of the main opium poppy growing areas in Mexico, and a large number of splintered gangs fight for its control.