16 gunmen killed in clashes in Mexico, 3 police injured by car bomb amid escalating cartel violence

Multiple clashes between Mexican security forces and suspected criminals left at least 16 people dead in the violence-plagued southern state of Guerrero on Thursday, the military said, the same day a car bomb outside a police station in western Mexico injured three officers.

The first battle occurred in the town of Tecpan de Galeana near the Pacific coast, in which two people were killed and four others were injured.

Security forces later fought with a criminal group that attacked a military base in the same area, killing 14 gunmen, according to a statement from SEDENA's national defense secretariat.

Guerrero, one of Mexico's poorest states, has experienced years of violence linked to turf wars between cartels fighting for control of drug production and trafficking.

Last year, 1,890 murders were recorded in the state that is home to the seaside resort of Acapulco, a former playground for the rich and famous that is now plagued by crime.

In early October, the mayor of the capital Guerrero was killed less than a week after taking office his beheading sparked outrage across the country and Demands for more protection.

Further north, a car bomb exploded outside a police station in Guanajuato state on Thursday, wounding three officers, local officials said.

The explosion damaged the police station, four houses and several homes, but only the police officers were injured, the agency said.

Officials said another explosion, apparently a second car bomb, occurred in the nearby town of Jerecuaro. Although no one was injured, the force of the second explosion was enough to blow off the tiled roof of a building, blacken the facades of nearby businesses and set a police patrol pickup truck on fire.

The near-simultaneous attacks in two different cities, about half an hour apart, suggested the involvement of drug cartels that have been waging bloody turf wars in Guanajuato for years.

The central region is a thriving industrial center and home to several popular tourist destinations, but is now also considered the most violent state in Mexico.

On October 4, the bodies of twelve murdered police officers were found in different areas of Salamanca, a city in Guanajuato.

Cartel wars continue

Officials say the violence in the state stems from a conflict between the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the Jalisco New Generation cartel, one of the most powerful in all of Mexico.

“I want to be clear: our priority is the pacification of Guanajuato, and we will tackle this complex task together,” state Governor Libia Garcia said on social media after Thursday’s attack.

She said an air and ground operation involving state security forces had been launched to support the city police.

Mexico has suffered more than 450,000 drug-related killings since the government began using the military to fight the cartels in 2006.

president Claudia Sheinbaumwho took office on October 1, has vowed to continue her predecessor's “hugs not bullets” strategy, which aims to tackle crime at its root through social policy while making better use of intelligence.

“The war on drugs will not return,” she said, referring to the U.S.-backed offensive launched in 2006.

There has also been an increase in violence in the northwestern cartel stronghold of Sinaloa since the drug lord was arrested in July Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in the United States. Last month he did pleaded not guilty in a drug trafficking case in the United States in which he is accused of assassination attempts and ordering torture.

Mexican troops were shot dead on Monday 19 suspected members of the Sinaloa Cartel after he was attacked.

Zambada's capture triggered power struggles between his followers and gunmen loyal to imprisoned cartel founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán and his sons.

Zambada charged Joaquin Guzman Lopez— one of El Chapo's sons who led a faction of the cartel known as the “Chapitos” — to kidnap him and hand him over to U.S. law enforcement.

According to an indictment released last year by the US Department of Justice, the Chapitos and their cartel partners used corkscrews, electric shocks and hot chili peppers torture their rivals while some of their victims were “fed dead or alive to tigers.” El Chapo's sons were among 28 indicted Sinaloa cartel members in a large-scale investigation into fentanyl trafficking announced in April 2023.

El Chapo is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado Convicted in 2019 including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons offenses.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.