Mexico: Five police officers shot dead in a region controlled by cartels

The attack took place in the municipality of Nahuatzen, an area where the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel operates.

Five police officers were killed and five others wounded Wednesday in an armed attack in the state of Michoacán, in western Mexico, under the control of drug cartels, the local government announced on the eve of the start of the football World Cup.

The vehicle they were traveling in showed numerous bullet holes, according to images seen by AFP. The attack took place in the municipality of Nahuatzen, an area inhabited by the Purépecha indigenous people and home to the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, according to the Michoacán Ministry of Security, which announced a large-scale police operation to find the perpetrators.

Michoacán is the epicenter of an avocado economy that generates $5 billion in revenue annually, as well as a significant lemon industry, and boasts a vast port on the Pacific coast. The illicit economy thrives there, fueled by extortion, drug trafficking, and the forced recruitment of vulnerable youth by cartels. Its capital, Morelia, is located some 300 kilometers from Guadalajara and Mexico City, two of the host cities for the FIFA World Cup, which opens Thursday at the Azteca Stadium in the Mexican capital. Some 12,000 soldiers were deployed to Michoacán, which borders the state of Jalisco, after the November assassinations of the mayor of Uruapan and a leader of wealthy local lemon producers who denounced cartel extortion.