Jalisco Cartel ambush leaves four Mexican soldiers dead

The ambush took place beneath the archway marking the entrance to Guachinango.

Four soldiers were killed and two injured when a military convoy was ambushed by cartel gunmen in the municipality of Guachinango in the western state of Jalisco on Monday.

The Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) is believed to have been behind the attack, which took place shortly after 4:30 p.m. on the Ameca-Mascota highway, approximately 140 kilometers west of Guadalajara.

The Jalisco Prosecutor General’s Office (FGE) reported that the soldiers from the XV Zona Militar division had discovered about 1,000 liters of stolen gasoline at a nearby farmhouse shortly before they came under attack.

As the convoy passed beneath the archway that welcomes visitors to Guachinango, “the land of gold and friendship,” around thirty masked paramilitaries pulled up aboard eight luxury pickup trucks. The assailants rammed one of the

military vehicles, hurled at least two grenades and fired off hundreds of rounds with AR-15 and AK-47 assault rifles.

Two of the military vehicles caught fire, with the blaze exacerbated by several liters of decommissioned fuel that the soldiers had brought onboard. Three soldiers were burned to death aboard one of the vehicles, while another was found dead in a nearby ravine, having reportedly leapt from the vehicle when it came under attack. Two other soldiers were injured and airlifted to a Guadalajara hospital.

The assailants fled the scene, leaving a trail of blood as they withdrew their wounded or deceased comrades. The FGE dispatched a helicopter to the area and the military set up roadblocks the following day in an attempt to capture the aggressors, but no arrests have been reported to date.

The CJNG’s profile and reach has risen in recent months, with InfoSur reporting that it now operates in the states of Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan, Nayarit and San Luis Potosi. The cartel traffics marijuana, heroin, cocaine and crystal meth, and has contacts in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Central America and the United States, according to security analyst Maria Idalia Gomez.

CJNG second-in-command Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez was arrested in Guadalajara in January, but his father, cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Ramos, alias “El Mencho,” remains at large.