3 Policemen Shot Dead on the La Paz Malecon/ 6 in 48 Hours

Around 5:00 p.m. this past Saturday, December 2, three officers assigned to the State   Tourist Police were killed in the middle of the Malecon in La Paz, Baja California Sur.

Commander Juan Polo Arreola, the supervising commander Christian Alberto León Aguiar, and Edmundo Vega Martínez, were left without life inside their patrol vehicle with the license number SSP 00001.

It should be noted that the State Tourist Police was recently inaugurated, a unit that is in charge of the Undersecretary of Public Security.

The Attorney General’s Office of the State (PGJE) confirmed that “at approximately 4:35 p.m., the PGJE learned via C4 that in the  El Centro neighborhood in this capital, firearm detonations were heard. They located at the  corner of Calle Rosales and Álvaro Obregón (the Malecon), aboard their patrol vehicle, the bodies of the murdered policemen, three men, shot to death by a gun of large caliber”.

The elements were attacked/ambushed  by an armed group of hit men while they were on the streets Paseo Álvaro Obregón (Malecón) at the corner of Antonio Rosales, El Parque Cuauhtemoc, in Colonia Centro, in front of the iconic Hotel Los Arcos, an enigmatic symbol of La Paz;  which sadly has been closed for a year due to a strike. The sicarios surprised the Police Patrol by opening fire upon them.

This is the second armed attack against police forces, just yesterday two agents of the Ministerial Police were injured and one killed after an ambush when they were on board a unit near  City Hall, ie, in La Paz on Friday Dec 1, 2017; the criminals fled the scene rapidly. A civilian reported that his car was damaged by the gunfire. This occurred at the corner of another new OXXO.

Sadly, students at La Preparatoria Ceyte 08 ran for their lives when the heard more than 15 detonations of gunfire.

Unofficially, the attackers have been identified as “El Dimas”. Perhaps they are carrying out the threat of “cleaning the plaza” that was written on the narco mantas around town last week in the wake of the horrific murder of Human Rights Commissioner Sylvester de la Toba, his son, and the wounding of his wife and daughter who were all traveling in the car together. “Los Tegoripenos and Los Guzmans” left the mantas threatening all gov’t officials with the same fate as the de la Toba family if they did not “align themselves”.

“Times to Pray”:

President of the Municipality of La Paz Armando Martinez Vega

On Dec 5th, Armando Martinez Vega, President of the Municipality of La Paz made a statement in which he said that: ” These are times for prayer, as one more citizen of the La Paz it pains me greatly what is going on in my city, my municipality, my state, I have children , grandchildren, family; these are times of crises and I ask all our citizens to join with me in prayer and ask God to help us all get through these terrible times together; may the ones who perpetrate this upon us retire. 

” I ask all to raise their prayers to the grand creator of the Universe to help us through these sad times that we have been enduring for months, in fact, the last three years that we have been exposed to such insecurity and we also hope that He will help the Authorities and the three levels of Government resolve this theme of violence.”