Three soldiers died and five were injured when a Mexican Army convoy was attacked in the Jalisco municipality of Teocaltiche on Sunday, November 19.
The attack was carried out by assailants who fired on the convoy from the safety of several well-protected armored vehicles, sometimes referred to by the Mexican media as “monstruos.”
To hamper any response, the aggressors quickly erected two blockades of burning vehicles, at kilometer 30 on the Jalostotitlán-Teocaltiche highway, and kilometer 55 on the San Juan de los Lagos-Jalostotitlán highway.
The incident in Teocaltiche came four days after a similar attack in Octotlan, a town located 45 miles due west of Chapala. Here, on November 16, armed individuals launched an assault on an inter-institutional convoy comprised of National Guard (GN) and state police officers. Although no fatalities were reported, one officer among the injured lost an arm. As in Teocaltiche, the assailants set up blockades on roads around Ocotlan to thwart responders.
According to the state government, the attack was a reaction to a federal-state operation implemented the day before in the region in and around Ocotlan known as the Ciénega.
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