ConflictBarometer_2015
ConflictBarometer_2015
ConflictBarometer_2015
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THE AMERICAS<br />
fices were carried out throughout the year. On February 24,<br />
Federal Police (PF) cleared the airport of Acapulco, Guerrero,<br />
which had been occupied by around 4,500 CNTE-associated<br />
unionists demanding the payment of outstanding salaries.<br />
A subsequent clash left approx. seven policemen and five<br />
protesters injured. Another 120 were arrested. Protesters<br />
threw stones while the police responded using tear gas.<br />
Protests increased in frequency as the mid-term elections<br />
scheduled for June 7 approached. The day before the elections,<br />
PF disbanded the occupation of the National Electoral<br />
Institute's office in Huajuapan de León, Oaxaca, which CNTE<br />
had set up in the attempt to boycott the elections. A total of<br />
20 people were injured when the police used tear gas and<br />
protesters hurled stones and wielded clubs.<br />
Between October and December, teachers' unions and normalistas<br />
repeatedly tried to disrupt the performance of<br />
teacher evaluation tests, a crucial part of the president's education<br />
reform. On October 18, for instance, protesters tried<br />
to obstruct the evaluations in Ocozocoautla de Espinosa,<br />
Chiapas, leading to a clash with state police, leaving eleven<br />
people injured. Teachers torched a police car and damaged a<br />
public bus. On December 8, normalistas blocked a toll booth<br />
in Zirahuén, Michoacán, demanding jobs without evaluation<br />
tests. After anti-riot police had cleared the place, about 200<br />
normalistas and locals returned and attacked the platoon<br />
of around 40 policemen with Molotov cocktails, explosive<br />
devices, stones, and clubs. A total of 52 normalistas were<br />
arrested while the injured amounted to five policemen and<br />
twelve normalistas. The same day, a protest march numbering<br />
3,300 participants in Ocozocoautla de Espinosa, Chiapas,<br />
escalated when CNTE members attacked a 5,000-strong PF<br />
contingent with stones, clubs, and incendiary devices. Three<br />
policemen were injured and six protesters arrested. One<br />
teacher was run over by a car and died. This incident and the<br />
Michoacán clashes triggered a series of further protests. For<br />
example, on December 10, 50,000 CNTE members marched<br />
in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas. They attacked the police with<br />
clubs and stones, injured five policemen, damaged three<br />
police buses, and stole police equipment. Three policemen<br />
were taken hostage and were only released when authorities<br />
agreed to exchange them for the six protesters detained on<br />
December 8. Despite widespread protests, 86.2 percent of<br />
all convened teachers participated in the nationwide evaluations.<br />
jok<br />
MEXICO (DRUG CARTELS)<br />
Intensity: 5 | Change: | Start: 2006<br />
Conflict parties:<br />
Conflict items:<br />
drug cartels vs. vigilante groups<br />
vs. government<br />
subnational predominance, resources<br />
The war over subnational predominance, illegal drugs, and<br />
natural resources between various drug cartels and vigilante<br />
groups known as autodefensas, on the one hand, and the<br />
government under President Enrique Peña Nieto, on the<br />
other, continued. The most active drug cartels were the Gulf<br />
Cartel (CDG), Los Zetas, the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación<br />
(CJNG), the Sinaloa Cartel, and Los Caballeros Templarios<br />
(LCT). Jalisco, Tamaulipas, Michoacán, and Guerrero were the<br />
most affected states. Clashes between government forces<br />
and armed groups took place almost daily. Additionally,<br />
the inter-cartel conflict remained highly violent [→ Mexico<br />
(inter-cartel violence, paramilitary groups)].<br />
Violence in Jalisco increased compared to the previous<br />
year. On March 19, supposed CJNG gunmen armed with<br />
assault rifles and 9mm pistols attacked a patrol from Jalisco's<br />
Joint State and Municipal Police Force (FU) near the town<br />
of Ocotlán. Five police officers, three presumed criminals<br />
and three civilians were killed. In another attack on a FU<br />
convoy on its way from Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara on<br />
April 6, five police officers and ten alleged CJNG members<br />
were killed. On May 1, the government initiated ''Operation<br />
Jalisco'' deploying 6,000 military forces, Federal Police (PF),<br />
and prosecutors targeting CJNG. In response, up to 250<br />
CJNG members set up roadblocks with burning vehicles in<br />
25 municipalities, set fire to eleven bank branches and five<br />
petrol stations, and engaged the state forces in four separate<br />
firefights. One police officer and eight cartel members were<br />
killed and 13 people injured. The same day, CJNG brought<br />
down a Cougar EC725 helicopter of the air force using a RPG<br />
and killing six.<br />
Violent encounters took place on a weekly basis in the<br />
northeastern border state of Tamaulipas. Federal troops on<br />
February 4 killed eight people intervening in separate battles<br />
of the rivaling Matamoros and Reynosa factions of CDG along<br />
the highway Matamoros-Reynosa. The arrest of José ''El Gafe''<br />
Hernández Fuentes, presumed head of the Reynosa CDG cell<br />
Los Metros, on April 17, sparked an outburst of violence in<br />
the city. At least six people were killed and five injured<br />
during gun battles in the following nine days.<br />
Michoacán remained a hotspot. PF and the military killed<br />
42 CJNG members during a three-hour-long shootout on a<br />
ranch in the municipality of Tanhuato on May 22. CJNG killed<br />
one police officer. PF confiscated 38 large-calibre weapons<br />
and one grenade launcher. On October 6, the newly-elected<br />
Governor Silvano Aureoles Conejo announced to increase the<br />
3,000 deployed PF, military, and marine forces in the state<br />
by 5,000. Similarly, on October 27, Secretary of the Interior<br />
Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong and Guerrero's new Governor<br />
Héctor Astudillo Flores announced to deploy 1,500 federal<br />
security forces to Guerrero as part of a new security strategy.<br />
Despite the vigilantes' formal integration into Rural Defense<br />
Corps (FRE) on 05/10/14, they repeatedly clashed with both<br />
drug cartels and state authorities. In Michoacán, on January<br />
6, at least 300 federal forces regained control of the city hall<br />
in Apatzingán, which had been occupied by vigilantes for<br />
several days. The federal forces opened fire, killing 16 and<br />
arresting 44. On June 23, 17 FRE troops and presumed CJNG<br />
gunmen died in two firefights near Tumbiscatío. After more<br />
than 600 vigilantes of the United Front for the Security and<br />
Development of the State of Guerrero (FUSDEG) occupied the<br />
town of Petaquillas, Guerrero, at least 1,000 military forces<br />
aimed to disarm them. On May 9, around 300 vigilantes<br />
armed with shotguns took control of the municipality of<br />
Chilapa and disarmed 40 municipal policemen of their AR-15<br />
and AR-70 weapons. Rivaling FUSDEG factions clashed in<br />
Xolapa on June 6, leaving 13 vigilantes dead.<br />
In the course of the year, security forces arrested and killed<br />
several cartel leaders. On February 27, the police arrested<br />
Servando ''La Tuta'' Gómez Martínez, leader of LCT, in Morelia,<br />
Michoacán. In a raid on March 4, 50 elements of PF and<br />
marines captured Omar ''Z-42'' Treviño Morales, head of Los<br />
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