Mexican Cartels Respond To AMLO’s “Hugs, Not Bullets” By Hunting Down, Torturing, And Executing Cops At Their Homes

After Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) attempted to combat cartels through peaceful means – namely his “hugs, not bullets” campaign to appease criminal organizations, the notoriously violent Jalisco cartel responded by kidnapping several members of an elite police force in the state of Guanajuato, torturing them to obtain the names and addresses of other cops, and is now hunting them down and killing them at their own homes, “on their days off, in front of their families,” according to the Associated Press.

This type of direct attack on the police is rarely seen outside of Central America, and stands to become the  most direct challenge to AMLO’s attempt to peacefully ‘manage’ the country’s competing cartels. The cartels, meanwhile, have already declared war on the government – focusing their efforts on eradicating every member of an elite state force known as the Tactical Group, which the cartel accuses of treating its members unfairly.

“If you want war, you’ll get a war. We have already shown that we know where you are. We are coming for all of you,” reads a banner signed by the cartel and hung on a Guanajuato building in May.

“For each member of our firm (CJNG) that you arrest, we are going to kill two of your Tacticals, wherever they are, at their homes, in their patrol vehicles,” the banner continues.

Officials in Guanajuato — Mexico’s most violent state, where Jalisco is fighting local gangs backed by the rival Sinaloa cartel — refused to comment on how many members of the elite group have been murdered so far.

But state police publicly acknowledged the latest case, an officer who was kidnapped from his home on Thursday, killed and his body dumped on a highway.

Guanajuato-based security analyst David Saucedo said there have been many cases.

“A lot of them (officers) have decided to desert. They took their families, abandoned their homes and they are fleeing and in hiding,” Saucedo said. “The CJNG is hunting the elite police force of Guanajuato.” -AP

According to one Guanajuato news outlet, Poplab, at least seven police officers have been killed on their days off so far this year. In January, a female state police officer was tortured and killed, after gunmen went to her home and murdered her husband first. Her bullet-ridden body was then dumped. Poplab adds that Guanajuato has had the highest number of cops killed of any Mexican state for at least three years – with at least 262 police officers having been killed.

“Unfortunately, organized crime groups have shown up at the homes of police officers, which poses a threat and a greater risk of loss of life, not just for them, but for members of their families,” reads a May 17 decree by the Guanajuato state government, which promises to provide an unspecified amount of funding for protecting the police and prison officials.

“They have been forced to quickly leave their homes and move, so that organized crimes groups cannot find them,” the decree continues.

According to Saucedo, the security analyst, “This is an open war against the security forces of the state government.”