An explosion killed 2 Mexican soldiers at a suspected drug cartel hideout after soldiers found mutilated bodies.
A landmine planted by a drug cartel killed two Mexican soldiers and wounded five others, Mexico’s defense secretary said Tuesday. Before the explosion, soldiers found the bodies of three people, officials said.
General Ricardo Trevilla admitted that six soldiers have died from improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, between 2018 and 2024. But he did not specify whether those six were killed by bombs dropped by drones, or by bombs buried on the side of the road. , both of which have been used by gangs in Mexico.
Trevilla said things like the one that exploded on Monday are “very bad,” and officials in the past have described them as landmines. There was no further information on the condition of the five people injured in the attack, including at least one police officer.
Trevilla’s description of the area where two soldiers died on Monday in the western region Michoacan suggested it might be some sort of grisly drug cartel booby trap.
Trevilla said the military sent soldiers to investigate reports that armed men were camped in a rural area. The soldiers found an area protected by cells that appeared to be a camp, but when the soldiers arrived in vehicles, they found the trail blocked by logs, so they dismounted and had to approach on foot.
When they got closer, they saw three mutilated bodies near the camp, which seemed to have been abandoned. But as they approached, a buried machine exploded and hit the soldiers.
Trevilla blamed the explosion on the United Cartels, an umbrella group that includes the local Viagras gang, which has been fighting bloody battles with the Jalisco gang in Michoacan for years.
In August, the Mexican army admitted that some of its soldiers had been killed drones drop bombs run by drug companies.
In the past, officials have said that soldiers are dealing with more roadside bombs than landmines.
The Jalisco drug cartel has been fighting local gangs for control of Michoacan, and the situation has become militarized to the point where armored vehicles use roadside bombs or IEDs, trenches, pillbox defenses, vehicles armed with improvised weapons and sniper rifles.
And Mesio Oseguera-Cervantesalso known as “El Mencho,” the leader of the Jalisco gang, which officials described as “one of the most violent and widespread drug trafficking organizations in the world.” The United States and the State Department have offered a $10 million reward for his capture.
In an earlier report detailing cartel bombings in August 2023, the Ministry of Defense said at the time a total of 42 soldiers, police and suspects were injured by IEDs in the first seven and a half months of 2023, up from 16 in 2023. all in 2022.
In total, 556 improvised explosive devices of all types – roadside, aerial bomb and car bombs – were found by 2023, the military said in a news release last year.
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