Less than a month after taking over as chief of the Jocotepec police force, Armando Baena Pinzon survived a baptism of fire, coming out unscathed in a shoot-out with criminals late Saturday, October 27.
The incident occurred around 11 p.m. as Baena and two bodyguards were en route to the Jocotepec Malecon in response to reports that armed men were raising a ruckus in the vicinity. As they approached the intersection of Vicente Guerrero and Ribera el Lago, the officers were met by a hail of bullets fired from assault rifles by various individuals riding aboard four vehicles.
The gunmen immediately sped from the scene to avoid capture. No one was injured in the fray, but the police vehicle was damaged by more than 20 shots. Army troops and state police officers arrived in the aftermath to beef up security and look for leads on running down the culprits.This week Jalisco Attorney General Tomas Coronado attributed the attack to retaliation for efforts to dismantle a drug cartel cell based in Tizapan el Alto on Lake Chapala’s south shore.
Two women operating as lookouts for the gang were detained and put under house arrest last week in connection with an October 22 shoot-out in Tizapan during which a state investigator was gravely wounded and a suspect in his custody was killed. They were identified as Ahtiziri Vázquez Ibarra, 18, and Luisa Jazmín Saldaña Horta, 23.
Another three suspects – Paloma Uribe Cardenas, 29, Erika Gutiérrez Gudiño (alias Rosa Guadalupe Castañeda), 24, and Roberto Torres Vargas, 21 – were busted in Jocotepec on the night of the confrontation with the police chief. They were caught with two AK-47 assault rifles, a nine-millimeter pistol, assorted ammunition and a cache of crystal meth and cocaine. Torres has since confessed to involvement in the Tizapan shooting incident.
Baena is not alone in what appears to be an emerging battle against new municipal police commanders across the state. Puerto Vallarta’s public security director Roberto Rodríguez Preciado lived through an attempted assassination on October 15. He resigned from the post five days later. On October 30, hitmen murdered San Martin de Hidalgo police chief Casimiro Zarate Guerrero. Violent exchanges between criminals and the Zapopan police force have also spiked notably since the October 1 change of government.