Acapulco cartels go after police chiefs

Juan Ávila Domínguez, commander of Acapulco's municipal police, was killed on October 12 after dropping his daughter at Rubén Mora primary school, in Bellavista neighborhood.

He was shot five times when he was trying to get back in his truck.

So far in 2015, 748 people have been killed in Acapulco, 37% of the total number of murders in Guerrero. From April to October, four police commanders were killed in the city.

A source of the Municipal Public Security Department who asked to remain anonymous said that the murdered policemen were linked to local drug cartels.

Gabino Solano, expert of the International Institute for Advanced Political Studies of the Autonomous University of Guerrero, agrees.

"We perceive a reckoning against police chiefs," said Solano, who heads an investigation on the subject sponsored by the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT).

He explained that police were infiltrated by drug traffickers in Acapulco and recalled a strike by municipal police in 2014 to demand better working conditions, equipment and life insurance that lasted almost one year.

"After a closer look we realized that the strike was not only promoted, but also supported by organized crime to get rid of cops, which they achieved for almost a year," Solano added.

Javier Morlett, chairman of the NGO Sentimientos del Sur, showed a video on YouTube in which the names of police chiefs linked to drug trafficking are revealed. He said the video may explain what is happening in Acapulco.

"In association with La Barredora, police persecuted the Independent Cartel of Acapulco (CIDA), that was left leaderless after the arrest of Víctor Aguirre Garzón. However the cartel has regained strength with the help of smaller gangs that control the area of ​​Acapulco and seek to keep the Jalisco Cartel at bay. That is why they are killing the policemen that they consider a threat, because they worked with rival gangs," he explained.

Juan Ávila Domínguez, Daniel Pérez Crisóstomo, Jorge Zambrano Hernández and Severiano Retana Bello are the other police commanders that have been murdered in Acapulco. Except for Jorge Zambrano, all the rest were linked with drug traffickers in “narco banners” and social networks.