On August 24, 2022, eight people were killed in the city of

Tuzantla Tuzantla is a Municipalities of Mexico, municipality in the eastern part of the Mexico, Mexican Mexican state, state of Michoacán. The municipality has an area of 1,018.49 square kilometres (1.73% of the surface of the state) and is bordered to th ...

Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The stat ...

, in Mexico, after a firefight between rival factions of

La Familia Michoacana La Familia Michoacana (, LFM; English: ''The Michoacán Family''), La Familia (English: ''The Family''), is a Mexican drug cartel & organized crime syndicate based in the Mexican state of Michoacán. They are known to produce large amounts of m ...

Prelude

The state of Michoacán, in south-central Mexico, has had a heavy cartel presence since the early 2010s. The cartels in Michoacán often exploit the lucrative avocado trade, the largest export from Michoacán and an integral part of the state's economy. The dominant cartels in the area are

and Los Caballeros Templarios, both originating locally after incursions by

Los Zetas Los Zetas (, Spanish for "The Zs") is a Mexican criminal syndicate and designated terrorist organization, known as one of the most dangerous of Mexico's drug cartels. They are known for engaging in brutally violent " shock and awe" tactics suc ...

and the

Gulf Cartel The Gulf Cartel ( , or ''Golfos'') is a criminal syndicate, Drug cartel, drug trafficking organization, and U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, which is perhaps one of the oldest organized crime groups in Mexico. It is currently bas ...

. In early 2022, Tuzantla had seen cartel violence with an ambush on Mexican government arms inspectors raiding suspected cartel members' homes.

Shooting

According to Mexican Deputy Security Minister Ricardo Mejía Berdeja, the attack began around 2:00pm local time in the town of Yerbabuena, before spreading to the town square of Tuzantla. The fighting began after a rival faction of La Familia entered the town, shooting at the Tuzantla-based faction. Four pickup trucks were torched, and civilians stated houses on the streets where fighting broke out were raided. The original dispute, according to Mexican prosecutors, stemmed from infighting between brothers Johnny "El Pez" and Jose Alfredo "El Fresa" Hurtado Olascoaga, leaders of the Tuzantla cell, and their former coworker known as "El Chaparro".

Aftermath

The bodies of eight civilians killed during the fighting were discovered in a butterfly

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

near Tuzantla. The Mexican National Guard announced the creation of a new post in

Melchor Ocampo Melchor Ocampo (4 January 1814 – 3 June 1861) was a Mexican lawyer, scientist, and politician. A zambo and a radical liberal, he was fiercely anticlerical, perhaps an atheist, and his early writings against the Catholic Church in Mexico gaine ...

, near Tuzantla. Michoacán security minister

José Alfredo Reyes Ortega José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

also visited Tuzantla after the attack, promising to bolster security.

References

{{Reflist 2022 murders in Mexico Mass murder in 2022 Shootouts 21st-century mass murder in Mexico 2022 mass shootings in North America Mass shootings in Mexico Attacks in Mexico in 2022 Victims of the Mexican Drug War Crime in Michoacán August 2022 crimes in North America Terrorist incidents in Mexico Terrorist incidents in North America in 2022