Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday ruled out categorizing drug cartel-related violence as “terrorism,” a day after clashes left 19 people dead and a car bomb wounded three police.
Two police officers died in a shootout with alleged criminals Thursday in the violence-plagued southern state of Guerrero, the government said.
Security forces killed 17 members of a criminal group that later attacked the military in the same area, Public Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch told a news conference, three more than previously reported.
Eleven suspects were arrested, he said.
“These groups, as we can see, have a very important firepower,” including light machine guns, he added.
Further north on Thursday, in Guanajuato state, a car bomb detonated outside a police station, wounding three officers.
A second explosion was reported later in the same region, causing material damage.
Asked whether her government viewed the attacks as “narcoterrorism,” Sheinbaum told reporters that the violence “cannot be classified as terrorism.”
According to Garcia Harfuch, the attacks in Guanajuato were linked to a drug cartel turf war.
“It’s a dispute between two criminal groups to fight each other and intimidate the authorities,” he said.
Former US president and White House contender Donald Trump has previously floated the idea of designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
Guerrero and Guanajuato are two of the Mexican states most affected by criminal violence.
Guerrero, home to the beachside resort city of Acapulco, has endured years of bloodshed linked to turf wars between cartels fighting for control of drug production and trafficking.
Guanajuato is a thriving industrial hub and home to several popular tourist destinations, but it is also now considered Mexico’s most violent state.
The northwestern cartel stronghold of Sinaloa has also seen a spike in violence since the July arrest of drug lord Ismael Zambada in the United States unleashed a wave of gang infighting.
Mexico has suffered more than 450,000 drug-related killings since the government started using the military to fight the cartels in 2006.
Sheinbaum, who took office on October 1, has pledged to continue her predecessor’s “hugs not bullets” strategy of using social policy to tackle crime at its roots, while also making better use of intelligence.
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